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Jean Camus and Gustave Roussy: pioneering French researchers on the endocrine functions of the hypothalamus

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« Il fallait une certaine dose de courage et la robuste confiance de la jeunesse pour porter une main sacrilège sur le dogme de la sécrétion interne de l´hypophyse… » [1]

« A certain amount of courage and a youth’s strong self-assurance were necessary to sacrilegiously challenge the dogma of the inner secretion role played solely by the pituitary gland... »

Edouard Rist,

Président de l´Académie de Médecine de Paris, 1926

Abstract

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the hypothalamus was known merely as an anatomical region of the brain lying beneath the thalamus. An increasing number of clinicopathological reports had shown the association of diabetes insipidus and adiposogenital dystrophy (Babinski–Fröhlich’s syndrome), with pituitary tumors involving the infundibulum and tuber cinereum, two structures of the basal hypothalamus. The French physicians Jean Camus (1872–1924) and Gustave Roussy (1874–1948) were the first authors to undertake systematic, controlled observations of the effects of localized injuries to the basal hypothalamus in dogs and cats by pricking the infundibulo-tuberal region (ITR) with a heated needle. Their series of surgical procedures, performed between 1913 and 1922, allowed them to claim that both permanent polyuria and adiposogenital dystrophy were symptoms caused by damage to the ITR. Their results challenged the dominant doctrine of hypopituitarism as cause of diabetes insipidus and adiposogenital dystrophy that derived from the experiments performed by Paulescu and Cushing a decade earlier. With their pioneering research, Camus and Roussy influenced the experimental work on the hypothalamus performed by Percival Bailey and Frederic Bremer at Cushing’s laboratory, confirming the hypothalamic origin of these symptoms in 1921. More importantly, they provided the foundations for the physiological paradigm of Neuroendocrinology, the hypothalamus’ control over the endocrine secretions of the pituitary gland, as well as over water balance and fat metabolism. This article aims to credit Camus and Roussy for their groundbreaking, decisive contributions to postulate the hypothalamus being the brain region in control of endocrine homeostasis and energy metabolism.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to specially thank Crystal Smith, Reference Librarian of the Department of History of Medicine at the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, for her king assistance during the process of searching and retrieving articles and monographs used in this study. The authors are also indebted to Lucretia MacLure and all the staff at the Francis Countway Medical Library at Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, and Rémi Gaillard, Head of Collection Management Department, University of Pierre-and-Marie-Curie in Paris, France, for their invaluable help in obtaining some of the original research material used for this study. Finally, the authors wish to express their gratitude to George Hamilton for his critical review of the language and style of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Endocrinology, Sureste University Hospital, C/ Ronda del Sur 10, Arganda del Rey, 28500, Madrid, Spain

    Inés Castro-Dufourny

  2. Department of Neurosurgery, Ramón y Cajal University Hospital, Madrid, Spain

    Rodrigo Carrasco

  3. Department of Neurosurgery, Puerta de Hierro University Hospital, Madrid, Spain

    Ruth Prieto

  4. Department of Neurosurgery, La Princesa University Hospital, Madrid, Spain

    José M. Pascual

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  1. Inés Castro-Dufourny
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  4. José M. Pascual
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Correspondence to Inés Castro-Dufourny.

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Inés Castro-Dufourny declares that she has no conflict of interest. Rodrigo Carrasco declares that he has no conflict of interest. Ruth Prieto declares that she has no conflict of interest. José María Pascual declares that he has no conflict of interest.

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Castro-Dufourny, I., Carrasco, R., Prieto, R. et al. Jean Camus and Gustave Roussy: pioneering French researchers on the endocrine functions of the hypothalamus. Pituitary 20, 409–421 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11102-017-0800-3

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