1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Acromegaly

ACROMEGALY, the name given to a disease characterized by a true hypertrophy (an overgrowth involving both bony and soft parts) of the terminal parts of the body, especially of the face and extremities (Gr. ἄκρον, point, and μέγας, large). It is more frequent in the female sex, between the ages of 25 and 40. Its causation is generally associated with disturbances in the pituitary gland, and an extract of this body has been tried in the treatment, as one of the recent developments in organo-therapeutics; thyroid extract has also been used, but without marked success, on the apparent analogy of acromegaly with myxoedema.