Abstract
A train of symptoms, coupled with retardation of tissue metabolism and with inactivity of the reproductive glands, not only accompanies experimental states of hypophysial deficiency but is equally characteristic of clinical states of hypopituitarism. The more notable of these symptoms are a lowering of body temperature, slowing of pulse and respiration, fall in blood pressure, and somnolence, together with a tendency, in the chronic cases, toward an unusual deposition of fat.
These symptoms are comparable to those accompanying the state of hibernation.
In a series of hibernating animals (woodchucks) it has been found that during the dormant period the pituitary gland not only diminishes in size but undergoes extreme histological alterations, chiefly evident in the cells of the pars anterior, which completely lose their characteristic differential reactions to acid and basic stains. At the end of the dormant period the gland enlarges and the cells regain their characteristic staining reactions.
On the basis of this observation hibernation may be ascribed to a period of physiological inactivity, possibly of the entire ductless gland series, but certainly more especially of the pituitary body, not only for the reason that the changes in this structure are particularly apparent but because deprivation of the secretion of this gland alone of the entire series produces a train of symptoms comparable to those of hibernation.
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