For him the experimental
physician was the physician of the future--a view well borne out by the
influence his epoch-making work has had on the treatment of disease. His
studies on the glycogenic functions of the liver opened the way for the
modern fruitful researches on the internal secretions of the various
glands. About the same time that Bernard was developing the laboratory
side of the problem, Addison, a physician to Guy's Hospital, in 1855,
pointed out the relation of a remarkable group of symptoms to disease
of the suprarenal glands, small bodies situated above the kidneys, the
importance of which had not been previously recognized. With the loss
of the function of these glands by disease, the body was deprived of
something formed by them which was essential to its proper working.
Then, in the last third of the century, came in rapid succession the
demonstration of the relations of the pancreas to diabetes, of the vital
importance of the thyroid gland and of the pituitary body. Perhaps no
more striking illustration of the value of experimental medicine has
ever been given than that afforded by the studies upon those glands.
The thyroid body, situated in the neck and the enlargement of which is
called goitre, secretes substances which pass into the blood, and
which are necessary for the growth of the body in childhood, for the
development of the mind and for the nutrition of the tissues of the
skin.
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