TY - JOUR T1 - DR. harvey cushing's oration on the hypophysis cerebri AU - Sajous CM Y1 - 1909/08/21 N1 - 10.1001/jama.1909.02550080046011 JO - Journal of the American Medical Association SP - 642 EP - 642 VL - LIII IS - 8 N2 - To the Editor:  —Those who expressed surprise when, over six years ago ("Internal Secretions," 1st Ed., 1903), I asserted that the anterior lobe of the pituitary played a leading rôle in the vital process per se, must now acknowledge the far-reaching meaning of Dr. Cushing's statement, in the Oration on Surgery, published in The Journal, July 24, that "more than one hundred total or partial hypophysectomies" had shown that "the anterior lobe of the hypophysis is a structure of such importance that a condition of apituitarism is incompatible with the long maintenance of life." While fully acknowledging the great value of Dr. Cushing's experiments, however, I must take exception to his conclusion that they sustain the theory that it is by means of a secretion capable of influencing the organism at large that the anterior pituitary carries on these all-important functions.That extracts of the posterior lobe raise the blood SN - 0002-9955 M3 - doi: 10.1001/jama.1909.02550080046011 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.1909.02550080046011 ER -