Abstract
PROF. SELYE‘s "Textbook of Endocrinology" is probably the most complete account of the subject which has yet appeared, at any rate within the compass of a single volume. It is, however, only a miniature of the much larger "Encyclopaedia of Endocrinology" which the author is bringing out in many volumes, six of which have so far been published, but which, it is hoped, will ultimately give a critical survey and a complete guide to the entire endocrinological literature. The present volume begins with an interesting preface by Prof. Houssay, of Buenos Aires, who points out how far we are from the theories which prevailed between 1880 and 1900 and which attributed to the internal secretions the role of neutralizing and destroying the toxic substances arising in intermediate metabolism. Long before that time, however, Berthold definitely promulgated the idea that an organ may exert its influence upon the bodily characters or upon other organs by means of chemical substances secreted internally into the circulating blood. This was in 1849, when he published his experiments upon testicular transplantation in fowls. His work was for many years lost sight of ; but his results have been completely confirmed. In the meantime, Claude Bernard employed the term ‘internal secretion' to describe the glycogenic function of the liver, because this gland stores up carbohydrate as glycogen and secretes it into the blood as sugar. Brown- Sequard‘s claims, made in 1889, to have rejuvenated himself as a consequence of injections of testicular extract attracted a great deal of attention, and although they did not stand the test of a later examination and repetition, nevertheless are usually regarded as marking the beginning of the modern science of endocrinology. The term ‘internal secretion' is now usually restricted to substances which, after being carried in the blood-stream, promote the secretion of particular glands or the growth of particular tissues on which they have a specific action. Such chemical excitants were named ‘hormones' by Starling in 1905. Prof. Selye does well to remind us of the beginnings of a science which in recent years has developed into such a large and important branch of physiology.
Textbook of Endocrinology
By Prof. Hans Selye. Pp. xxxii + 914. (Montreal: University of Montreal, 1947.) 10.25 dollars.
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MARSHALL, F. Textbook of Endocrinology. Nature 161, 953 (1948). https://doi.org/10.1038/161953a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/161953a0