T L. Althausen ^ ^ 



adrenals, is their maintenance in a room of constant temperature. If sutli a 

 room was not used this might account for ihe divergent resuhs of Marrazzi. 

 Withdrawal of salt from adrenalectomized rats for two days brought .iljoiu the 

 characteristic fall in rate of intestinal absorption for dextrose. 



We also studied the effects of an excess of adrenal cortical hormone on in- 

 testinal absorption. Percortin, in doses of i cc. injected daily for ten days into 

 the peritoneal cavity of normal rats, had no effect on intestinal absorption of 

 dextrose. An even more drastic experiment was performed with rais which 

 had been pancreatectomized in order to render them more susceptible to the 

 adrenal cortical hormone.'' At the end of three days, during which i (c. of 

 adrenal cortical extract* was injected three times a day and also one hour 

 before the absorption experiment, the intestinal absorption of dextrose in 

 these rats was still normal. 



From these experiments the conclusion was drawn that the adrenal cortical 

 liormone has no direct effect on intestinal absorption of dextrose and that the 

 diminution in absorption after adrenalectomy is probably due either to a 

 general impairment of health of the operated rats or to disturbed metabolism 

 of sodium chloride. Clinically these conclusions were confirmed by the fact 

 that patients with hypoadrenalism in Addison's disease absorbed galactose 

 from the intestine at an abnormally low rate, while patients suffering from 

 hyperadrenalism (Cushing's syndrome) did not have abnormally high intes- 

 tinal absorption of this sugar. 



TJie Gonads. Early in our work we found that female rats absorbed dextrose 

 at a consistently higher rate (31 per cent) than male rats (table 4). The same 

 observation was made by Deuel, Hallman, Murray and Samuels." The fact 

 that we found no difference between the sexes in the absorption of calcium 

 lactate indicates that the process involved is not absorption through simple 

 diffusion, but that it may be the same chemical mechanism which is stimulated 

 by the thyroid hormone. 



We studied the influence of the gonads on intestinal absorption of dextrose 

 by performing absorption experiments on animals from which the gonads had 

 been removed.^" Castration in adult male rats tested eighteen days after the 

 operation and in male rats operated at three weeks of age and tested seven 

 weeks later did not alter the rate of intestinal absorjjtion for dextrose. There- 

 fore we concluded that the testes have no influence on the absorptive processes 

 in the intestine. On the other hand, spaying of three-week-old female rats tested 

 seven weeks later reduced the rate of absorption for dextrose to that of male 

 rats. This finding was a confirmation of the observation that the ovaries have 

 a stimulating influence on the absorption of dextrose. However, ovariectomy 

 in adult female rats did not affect the absorption of drxiiose when they were 

 tested eighteen days later, at which time all the female sex hormone presum- 

 ably had been excreted. These observations indicate that the action of tht- 

 ovaries in intestinal absorption is due not to the immediate presence of the 

 * The adrenal cortical extract was kindly siii)plicd by the \Vils{)n Laboratories of Chicago. 



