Investigation of a method of fractionation of anterior pituitary.

Our knowledge of the hypophysis cerebri orpituitary gland dates back to the early anatomists.Cilen, who considered that the gland acted as a filterfor the mucous fluid of the brain which was secreted insome way into the naso-pharynx,adopted the name glandulapituitaria. It is interesting to note that the name haspersisted to the present although the early theory of itsfunction has been discarded. These ideas of the specificfunction of the pituitary were based on theoreticalspeculation and observation rather than experimental experienceand consequently were not easily corrected.Other theories of its function were upheld from time totime, but they did not threaten the theory of Galen and'his followers very seriously. Nith the advent of themicroscope systematic investigation of the gland wasundertaken by Rathke (1838) and for the next fifty yearsanatomists studied its embryological development, anddescribed its structure. [...