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.
- Starling, Ernest Henry, 1866-1927.
- Date:
- 1923
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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![known, and when it may be possible to synthesise theij in any desired quantity. We may then be able to ove come the inconvenience of subcutaneous injection b giving relatively colossal doses by the mouth, or we ma, be able to modify their constitution to a slight extent s as to render them immune to the action of the digestiv juices without affecting their specific action on tb functions of the body. (3) The ideal but not, I venture to assert, the unattair able method will be to control, by promotion or supprea sion, the growth of the cells themselves, whose functio it is to form these specific hormones. Though this metho. seems at present far from realisation, the first steps in thi direction have already been taken. It must be remembere that the power of controlling growth of cells involves th solution of the problem of cancer. Experiments on th growth of normal cells outside the body have shown tha they can be stimulated to vie with cancer cells in the rat of their growth, or can be inhibited altogether accordin to the nature of the chemical substances with which the are supplied. And we know that the growth of certai cells, such as those of the mammary gland or of the uterus is excited by specific chemical substances produced in th ovary or fcetus, and we may be able to find specific sub stances or conditions for any tissue of the body, whid may excite growth when this is retarded or diminis] growth when this is in excess. It may be that in som cases purely mechanical interference will suffice. Thus! in experiments by Steinach and others, it has been fournj that ligature of the vas deferens close to the testis, whiL causing atrophy of the seminiferous cells, brings abou overgrowth of the interstitial cells which, as we haw seen, are chiefly responsible for the hormones determining the secondary sexual characters. Among these secondary](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b30800985_0032.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
