The adrenal cortex and its role in resistance.

The historical development of the knowledge of the metabolism of the hormones of the adrenal cortex reflects the development of the advances made in the whole field of endocrinology. Clinical observations of deranged function have been followed by experimentation in attempts to produce in the laboratory animal signs of hypo- or hyperfunction of a particular gland. The usual order of experimentation has been first ablation of the gland to determine it the findings following its removal are similar to those occurring in man as a result of destruction of the analogous gland. [...