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ONLY A LITTLE over a decade ago, any discussion of the function of the pineal gland included qualifying adjectives such as alleged, supposed, and putative. In the same vein, since it connoted a hormonal function, rather than referring to the pineal as a gland, the phrase pineal organ was usually employed to describe this portion of the epithalamus. However, this is no longer the case, at least in mammals. By the usual criteria in endocrinology, the pineal now fulfills all the qualifications of an organ of internal secretion.

Several major discoveries revolutionized ideas concerning the function of the pineal gland. Certainly, as noted frequently in other reviews, the isolation and identification of N-acetyl-5-methoxytryptamine (melatonin), a pineal hormone, from bovine pineal tissue by Lerner et al. (1, 2) provided a strong impetus for subsequent investigations on this sometimes exasperating organ. At least as …