science · 08 December 1970 · 55 years ago
death
Died 8 Dec 1970 at age 86 (born 1 Jan 1884).
American endocrinologist who demonstrated the importance of the pituitary. Beginning in 1916, often collaborating with his wife, Smith set out to study the embryonic frog pituitary. He painstakingly made the microinstruments needed to operate on the pituitary anlage (bud) of the 4-mm tadpole. In 1926, he fashioned a minute pipette to remove the rat pituitary by suction without damage to the brain. He showed that such “hypophysectomy” resulted in the cessation of growth and atrophy of the other adrenal glands, such as the thyroid, the adrenal cortex, and the reproductive glands. Smith was thus able to study “pure” hypopituitarism and hormone replacement therapy and to publish a paper immediately recognized as classic.
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