Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 February 2018
In recent years a large amount of literature has been published dealing with the treatment of mental disorders by means of gland extracts, and I take this opportunity of bringing to your notice some of the results I have obtained while treating patients with these extracts. I shall confine my remarks mainly to the treatment of the psychoses with ovarian extract, as, according to some authorities, the results following the administration of this gland extract have been highly gratifying, and we have therefore made use of it to a great extent in suitable cases. It is a well recognized fact that there is normally a perfect balance between the various endocrine glands, and that any disturbance of this balance tends to produce a disturbance in the mental and physical states of the person so affected. Thus there is a functional harmony and compensatory interaction between the ovaries, thyroid and pituitary glands, the secretion of one gland helping the action of another. It is also found that if the secretion from one of these glands is deficient, one of the other glands in the same series attempts to take over its function by hypertrophying and pouring out an increased secretion into the blood-stream. Thus, after removal of the ovaries, the thyroid and the pituitary glandtend to increase in size in order to compensate for the loss of the ovarian secretion. It is also a recognized fact that the corpusluteum, placenta and mammary gland secretions tend to depress ovarian function, and, therefore, to diminish the ovarian secretion. This is seen during pregnancy, when the ovarian secretion must be held in abeyance; if this were not so there would be an influx of pituitrin into the blood-stream which would cause uterine contractions and the inevitable termination of the pregnancy.
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