126 INTERNAL SECRETION 



in man was, upon pathologico-anatomical grounds brought into 

 relationship with a disturbed condition of the suprarenals. 



Addison described the condition, which was afterwards named 

 after him, as an idiopathic anaemia, associated with extreme 

 apathy and adynamia, disturbances of the digestive tract and of 

 the nervous system, and a bronze-coloured pigmentation of the 

 skin and mucous membranes ; whose course was chronic ; which 

 presented all the features of a progressive cachexia, frequently 

 accompanied by violent symptoms, such as uncontrollable diar- 

 rhoea, coma and convulsions; and with a termination which was 

 always fatal. In every case examined, the post-mortem findings 

 showed serious disease, generally tuberculous in character, of the 

 suprarenals, and Addison concluded from this that both the patho- 

 logical condition and its fatal termination were due to suppression 

 of the suprarenal function. 



Addison's observations supplied the first contribution, from 

 clinical experience, to the physiology of the suprarenals ; they 

 showed that these organs are essential to the life of the individual ; 

 and they furnished certain inferences as to the nature and method 

 of their functional activity. 



Addison's discovery gave an immense impetus to research 

 which, for the first time in the history of this subject, was con- 

 ducted upon physiological lines; that is to say, by means of ex- 

 periment with the living animal. It \vas believed that extirpation 

 of the suprarenals of animals planned earlier by various investi- 

 gators (Ecker, Meckel) but never carried out would supply the 

 much desired information as to the function of these organs. 

 Moreover, this method alone could decide whether the clinical 

 condition observed by Addison in man, could be induced in 

 animals by the experimental destruction of their suprarenals. 

 These expectations were, however, not fulfilled. Although a 

 large number of communications were forthcoming \vhich con- 

 firmed the coincidence of the classical symptom-complex pig- 

 mentation of the skin, muscular weakness, gastro-intestinal de- 

 rangement, anaemia, with a disease of the suprarenals in man, 

 yet in no case was it possible experimentally to reproduce a similar 

 group of symptoms in animals. All that experimental investiga- 

 tion was able to achieve, was a definite answer to the question as 

 to w'hether animals could survive after extirpation of the supra- 

 renals in other words, as to w'hether or not the suprarenals \vere 

 essential to the life of the animal. 



The first accounts of such experiments were published in the 

 year 1856. The results described were capable of various inter- 

 pretations and led to a vast amount of discussion which, helped on 

 by numerous experiments, lasted until about the middle of the 

 'sixties. It seemed at that time that the part played by the supra- 

 renals in the animal economy was not a vital one. 



The interest of physiologists was, however, permanently 



