The wisdom of the body : the Harveian oration delivered before the Royal College of Physicians of London, on St. Luke's day, 1923 / by Ernest H. Starling.

  • Ernest Starling
Date:
1923
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The wisdom of the body : the Harveian oration delivered before the Royal College of Physicians of London, on St. Luke's day, 1923 / by Ernest H. Starling. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    or, as seems more probable, in the interstitial cells of th< testes and ovary, which themselves are probably derive( from the germ cells of the embryo. Thus it is possibl* by operating at an early age to transfer male into femah and vice versa. Removal of the ovaries from a her causes the assumption of male plumage; the remova from a young cock of the testes and their replacemen by an implantation of ovaries causes a disappearance o the comb and the assumption of the plumage of a hen Each animal, as concerns its general build and colour has a neutral form, which, as has been shown by Pezard results from the extirpation of either testes or ovaries In fowls the neutral form, as judged by the plumage approximates the male, whereas in sheep the neutral forn resembles the female. There is no question that, by the implantation of ovaries or testes into the foetus at i sufficiently early age, one could produce the wholt development of the internal and external genitalia corre( sponding to the sex of the gland implanted. It is worth] of note that these sex characters affect also the mentality •'i and the reactions of the animal, although they are quit< independent of any nervous connections. Here, as in the case of the thyroid, the functions of the centra nervous system, in their highest manifestations, depenc? on the circulation in the blood of chemical substances o hormones. The wonderful development that takes plac< in the female after conception to fit her to nourish th< foetus as well as the young child is also due to hormones produced in some cases perhaps in the ovaries, in othe cases in the product of conception itself. We owe to Schafer the knowledge of the internal secre tion of the medulla of the suprarenal bodies. As Cannor has pointed out, this secretion is poured into the blooc during conditions of stress, anger or fear, and acts as £j
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