THE SUPRARENAL SYSTEM 287 



obtained a yellow-white body from the suprarenals, which was 

 found under the miscroscope to consist of fine, slightly bent 

 needles arranged in rosette form. After repeated crystallization 

 he obtained a snow-white body which, as it did not stain with 

 osmium, he believed to be free from lecithin. The phosphorus 

 contents were 1.6 per cent.; higher, therefore, than the figure 

 given for protagon by the majority of authors. Owing to the 

 small amount of substance at his disposal, he was able to test for 

 the carbohydrates by colour-reactions only, and the results of 

 these were positive. From the results of his investigations, 

 Orgler held the double refractive granules to be protagon. 



After, however, Panzer had shown that the double refractive 

 substances in the kidney are not protagons that is to say, they 

 are not combinations with phosphorus but are cholesterinesters, 

 Adami and Aschoff continued the investigations made by 

 Lehmann and Schenk into the nature of the fluid crystals. They 

 endeavoured to obtain by synthesis, combinations corresponding 

 to those of the double refractive globules found in the body, corres- 

 ponding therefore to the fluid crystals. They found that the 

 most important ingredients are cholesterinesters, whether pure or 

 in combination with oleic acids, fats, or cholesterin. These experi- 

 ments pointed to the probability of the double refractive substance 

 of the suprarenal being of a cholesterinester-like nature. On the 

 other hand, Wright pointed out that mixtures of cholesterin with 

 oleic acids may also yield double-refractive globules, and he lays 

 stress upon the fact that the suprarenal cortex contains a mixture 

 of cholesterin with lecithin and oleic acids, and that these are to 

 be regarded as products of secretion. 



Rosenheim and Tebb isolated a white crystalline substance 

 from the suprarenal cortex of the ox, which contained 3.4 per cent, 

 phosphorus, and the physical properties of which corresponded to 

 Thudichum's diamidomonophosphatide, sphingomyelin, the most 

 important constituent of the so-called cerebral protagon. This 

 substance possessed a characteristic, which they describe, namely, 

 that of sphere-rotation, and it crystallized into anisotropic sphere- 

 crystals. 



In 1909 the same authors published their further investigations 

 into the nature of the suprarenal lipoids. 



In the first extract of dried suprarenal obtained with acetone, 

 they found a large quantity of a crystalline substance which con- 

 sisted principally of stearic acid, mixed with the cholesterinesters 

 in small quantities. The latter were not identified, but their 

 nature w r as assumed from analogy with the cholesterinesters which 

 Panzer isolated from large white kidney. From the matrix of 

 the cold acetone extract, they isolated free palmitic acid, an 

 unsaturated oleic acid, and fat. 



From the hot acetone extract they obtained a smaller quantity 

 of a crystalline substance from which they isolated cholesterin 



