Introduction to the Pituitary and Hypothalamus

Abstract

The history of past events, when subjected to logical schema, very often permits its students to foretell the future to some extent. However, no student of the history of endocrinology could have predicted the heights to which this science would soar in this century, especially during the past 20 years. This is particularly so if one considers the paucity of developments in the field of endocrinology until the turn of the century and the consequent intellectual drought that pervaded that period. Everything has a history and a past, regardless of whether that past is richly textured or barren. A brief sojourn in the back woods of history, as it relates to the pituitary gland, is relevant—even essential—when one considers the prophetic nature of the observations by a few. For an eminently readable and a singularly enchanting account, the reader is referred to A History of Endocrinology ¹ by Medvei, the only complete and definitive work of its kind in the English language. The landmarks—the places and the people—that punctuated that history are briefly outlined in this chapter.