The extraordinary variability of the pictures that denote pituitary dysfunction bespeaks the many functions that must be allotted to this small, complex structure. Although much has been learned from direct observation in the clinic and from the contributory evidence of the experimental laboratory, one still cannot speak too dogmatically concerning what is and what is not of direct pituitary origin. Some of the symptoms in the subject with pituitary dysfunction can be explained only on the basis of an interrelationship between the pituitary and other organs of the endocrine chain. Thus the lowered metabolic rate and the accession of fat of the Fröhlich syndrome are not directly of pituitary origin, but rather an interaction between the pituitary and the thyroid, an expression of hypothyroidism. There is still confusion concerning the part the tuber cinereum plays in the picture once exclusively ascribed to pituitary malfunction.
In the Neurosurgical Clinic of the