This widely used text provides a thoroughly updated account of current knowledge in the endocrine sciences. Each chapter is structured to cover both established concepts and recent developments. The chapters are not only written at a consistent level and well-integrated with one another, but they also blend basic science with essential elements of clinical knowledge in order to give students an appreciation of the consequences of deranged endocrine function. The 4th Edition presents the latest advances in energy metabolism, obesity and the control of appetite, interactions between the immune and endocrine systems and their implication for tumor growth, hypothalamic peptides involved in the regulation of pituitary function, fluid and electrolyte balance, hormones of the heart and brain, and the series of new factors that regulate gonadal, adrenal, and thyroid development and function. The two chapters on the rapidly evolving feilds of genes and hormones and sexual differentiation have been completely rewritten by new authors.