THE SUPRARENAL SYSTEM 289 



Aschoff affirms that they colour a yellowish red with sudan, a 

 weak reddish colour with Nile blue sulphate, and grey with osmic 

 acid ; that they do not stain with neutral red or by Golodetz's 

 method ; and that, after fixing with chrome, they are converted into 

 insoluble lipoids with a positive colour reaction to sudan red. 



The colour reactions of the double-refractive globules are 

 identical with those of the cholesterinesters. They stain with 

 sudan, Nile blue sulphate, and ponceau red in the same manner 

 as the neutral fats, and they are unaffected by the Golodetz 

 process which, by means of a mixture of formaldehyde and 

 sulphuric acid, stains the smallest traces of cholesterin a brown 

 to violet colour. Aschoff adopts the view that the presence of 

 the double refractive globules may represent only a modification 

 of the ordinary fatty degeneration, a special sort of storing-up of 

 fat, and that the occurrence of the double refractivity does not 

 point to a degenerative, endogenous formation of the globules. 

 The processes are invariably pure infiltration processes. This is 

 shown by the occurrence of isotropic and anisotropic globules 

 side by side in the same cell, and especially by the physiological 

 occurrence of such granules in the cells of the suprarenal cortex. 



Nothing definite can be said concerning the physiological 

 significance of anisotropic substances. The view which prevails 

 at present is that, of the lipoids, lecithin plays the part of stimu- 

 lant of the ferments which serve as protective agents to the 

 cholesterins. It has been definitely proved by experiment that 

 with substances of a saponin nature (saponin, digitonin), choles- 

 terins give additive combinations which are insoluble and which 

 do not decompose readily. Of the functions of the globular 

 formations which are described as " myelin," we know practically 

 nothing. 



In most cases where the double refractive substance is of 

 pathological origin, the process appears to be one of resorption 

 or of accumulation, characterized by marked profusion of the 

 cholesterin combinations. 



Up to the present, no explanation has been found for the 

 physiological occurrence of the double refractive substance in the 

 suprarenal cortex. The assumption of Bernard and White, that 

 the suprarenal cortex secretes lecithin and cholesterin in combin- 

 ation with fat, is pure hypothesis. 



Aschoff also mentions Ciaccio's finding, that treatment with 

 chromates renders the so-called myelin-forms of the suprarenal 

 cortex difficult of solution, and that at this stage, in spite of 

 treatment with alcohol and xylol and embedding in paraffin, they 

 show a very distinct sudan coloration. Ciaccio carried out certain 

 experiments with what he believed to be pure lecithin and 

 protagon, and he considers, from the results which he obtained, 

 that this sudan reaction is specific to lecithin, and he believes 

 lecithin to be a product of cell-metabolism. 

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