CIRCULATORY DISTURBANCES IN DISEASES OF THE GLANDS OF INTERNAL SECRETION

However obscure the functions of the endocrine glands may be we can agree, I think, that they are all concerned in one way or another, direct or indirect, with metabolism. If this is so, we must assume that they are likewise all concerned with the circulation, for in all except very lowly organisms the metabolism of tissue cells is vitally dependent upon a free supply of a suitable circulating medium. If the secretions of endocrine glands influence cell activities, they must of necessity also influence the supply of the medium upon which such activities depend. While the study of the exact mode of action by which such influence is brought to bear belongs properly to the physiologist or pharmacologist, it is altogether pertinent for the clinician to seek to interpret, in the light of knowledge gained by such studies, the circulatory disturbances which he may observe in patients known to be suffering from endocrine disease.