Adreno-cortical homo-transplantation as a method of endocrine research

Abstract

The idea of transplantation must have arisen very early in the history of human thought. It presents itself to the mind as a prima facie solution to probleus such as the repair of defects, the replacement of diseased parts and the acquisition of additional powers. As such it must have occasionally filled the imagining of primitive man.Mankind was not slow to proceed from dreams to deed in this matter. The technique of horticultural graftiNG seems to have been perfected very early in civilised development and Aristotle mentions the procedure on a number of occasions as something well established. HE also draws attention to the different compatibilities between the various plants used for grafting.The transplantation of animal tissues meets greater technical and biological obstacles and the only example of its routine use amongst the Ancients was probably rhinoplasty by autoplastic pediclegraft as practised b the ancient Hindus. This was a modest but very useful beginning at a period of human history when mutilation (due to savage customs and primitive conditions of life were almost as common as they are now becoming (due to savage customs and civilised conditions of life).The success of this type of operation was a demonstration on of the important fact that a secondarily acquired blood supply can maintain the life of a transplanted part.To -day transplantation has ceased to be a biological tour de force, and is finding daily wider applications. Where survival of the graft for any length of time is not of importance as in the case of blood, bone, skin, and arteries, it has already established itself amongst routine therapeutic procedures. With bur daily increasing knowledge of the factors on which transplant survival depends, we may confidently expect an extension of the therapeutic use of transplantation to other tissues, Transplantation experiments are fructifying every field of biological research and have become of extreme importance in cancer research, embryology arid endocrinology.