Hypophysectomy and Replacement Therapy

Within the last few years there have appeared several reports1to the effect that the specific dynamic action of food is decreased in so-called pituitary disease. No studies of this question appear to have been made on laboratory animals, though there are reports of lowered basal metabolism following surgical removal of or injury to the hypophysis (Benedict and Homans2in the dog, Winton and Hogben3in the frog). However, much of the work of these investigators is inconclusive on account of the ill defined nature of their experimental material as seen in the light of recent investigations of hypophysial function. The experimental work of Camus and Roussy,4Bailey and Bremer5and Smith,6and the clinical cases of pituitary atrophy, reported by M. Simmonds7and others show that a pituitary deficiency does not give rise to obesity. Since most of the clinical cases, aside