SECRETS OF HEALTH.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5224, 9 January 1928, Page 2

SECRETS OF HEALTH.

GLANDS AND STATURE.

A MEDICAL DESCRIPTION. - Sir W. Arbuthnot Lane,, Bart., C.B.> writes in the London Daily Mail : — “The attention which i;; now being given to all questions relating to health has suggested that a short article dealing with the ductless glands would prove of public interest.” The following description lias been written by an expert on this subject: “Situated in various parts of the body are to be found certain glands which, from the fact that many of of them have no duets or passages down which to pour their juices, are known as ductless glands. The products of these glands hve been called internl secretions. There are also in the body other structures manufacturing chemicals which are poured directly into the blood-stream, and not into some structure via a duct. “All those glands which secrete directly into the blood are included under the heading ductless glands. The best known is thej thyroid, situated in the neck, in close apposition to the thyroid caitilage, or Adam’s apple.

The; cretin is a child born without a thyroid, or with deficient thyroidal secretion. Such children are deficient in normal development, both physical and mental. The condition is apt to occur in mountainous or hilly districts., such as the Alps and the Himalayas. The exact causation is not as yet accurately determined ; but, allowing for hereditary factors, the disease appears tp, depend upon faulty nutrition and infections. A CAUSE OF GOITRE. Goitre is. a swelling of the thyroid and may be present in several different forms. One variety is associated with prominent eyes and marked nervousness and this has been shown, to be predisposed to by poisoning, especially that originating in some part of tlie digestive tract. The importance of careful feeding and attention to the functions of tlie bowel cannot be too much emphasised in any disorder of tlie thyroid gland. The pituitary gland is situated at the base of the brain, and, like the thyroid, is intimately concerned in the regulation of the nutrition of the body. Particularly during the years of growth is the work of this gland of great importance. It has been shown that stature largely depends upon the. pituitary. Deficiency of this gland leads to under-developed with sleepy, sluggish minds and fat, inert bodies. Charles Dickens, in describing the Fat Boy, gave an extraordinarily exact picture of a child suffering from too little pituitary secretion. '