If it is true that some of the disease syndromes of infancy and childhood owe their origin to either excess or deficiency of certain of the incretions; if it is true that the several metabolic processes as well as the activities of the vegetative nervous system are subject to regulation by substances of endocrine origin; if it is true that physical and mental growth and development in early life are, in a large measure, influenced by the chemical products of the ductless glands, and if it is true that human constitutions differ markedly in their incretoglandular make-up, then surely every pediatrician should be interested in endocrinology and its progress.
My subject is, I admit, a somewhat dangerous one. Though the field of endocrinologic facts is already wide and important, that of endocrinologic fancy is altogether too fascinating. The latter province has, in some quarters at least, undergone harmful over-exploitation; the