f^f J-IBRARv '^ 



On the Blood-Pressure Raising \^ 

 Constituent of the Suprarenal 

 CapsuM 



JOHN J. ABEL, M.D. AND ALBERT C. CRAWFORD, M.D. 



B 



OTH clinical experience and laboratory research have shown that 

 the suprarenal capsule is an organ of vital importance. 



Physiologistsf have proved that a very small quantity of an aqueous 

 extract of the medullary substance raises the blood pressure to a great 

 height above the normal. It has also unequaled power in reviving a 

 poisoned heart. Gottlieb,]: for example, has shown that it will revive 

 the heart of a rabbit which has practically stopped beating in conse- 

 quence of an intravenous injection of chloral hydrate. 



Bates§ applied an aqueous solution to the eye and found that it 

 exerted a marked vaso-constricting action. In numerous cases of con- 

 gestion a small quantity dropped into the conjunctival sac brought 

 about an immediate pallor, lasting for some time. According to this 

 writer the extract is very useful in prolonged operations, for, when 

 repeatedly applied, haemorrhage is prevented and cocaine anaesthesia 

 is in consequence indefinitely prolonged. As the result of his two years' 

 use of the extract Bates concludes "that within the limits of its sphere 

 of activity there is absolutely no other substance which can take its 

 place." 



Other experiments || go to show that the aqueous extract is a power- 

 ful poison when injected directly into the circulation and may lead to 

 fatal results. 



* Read before the Association of American Physicians, May 6, 1897. 



f Schafer and Oliver, Journal of Physiology, xvi (1894) and xvii (1895); Szy- 

 monowicz and Cybulski, Wien. med. Wochenschrift, 1896, No. 6. 



:|:Arch. f. exp. Pathol, u. Pharmakol., xxxviii, 106. 



§ New York Medical Journal, Ixiii (1896), 647. 



II Foa and Pellacani, cited in Maly's Jahresb. d. Thier-Chemie, xiii, 129; Marino- 

 Zuco, ibid., xviii, 231; Gourfein, Rev. M^d. de la Suisse Romande, Oct. 20, 1895; 

 Compt. rend., cxxi (1895), 311-314. 



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