RECKLINGHAUSEN'S DISEASE: ITS RELATION TO THE ENDOCRINE SYSTEM

Abstract

Throughout this article the term "Recklinghausen's disease" is used for all cases presenting the varying syndrome usually indicated by the name "generalized neurofibromatosis." Von Recklinghausen¹and Adrian²have both long since objected to the latter term as giving an incorrect impression of the nature of the growths characteristic of the disease. Many French physicians have also made the equally valid objection that the name "generalized neurofibroma" has thrown undue emphasis on only one aspect of the syndrome and has thus limited the disease, in the minds of many, to its most common forms, to the exclusion of the unusual and incomplete forms, "formes frustes," which are not so unusual as one is led to believe. The latter, of which the author's case is an example, almost invariably shows pigmentation, and the accompanying psychic, nervous, and trophic disorders frequently play a more important part in the life of the