282 C. N. H. LONG 



needed, that we have still much to learn about their action in the body. 



Those of you who are familiar with the beautifully illustrated mono- 

 graph in which Thomas Addison first clearly defined the relationship 

 of the adrenals to the disease in man which now bears his name, will 

 remember that one plate shows the remarkable enlargement of the ab- 

 dominal lymph nodes in the cases he described. 



Since that time, numerous observations both in man and animals have 

 made us aware of the reciprocal relationship between the adrenal cortex 

 and the lymphoid elements of the body. Withdrawal of the hormone is 

 associated with lymphoid enlargement; an excess of hormone causes 

 rapid involution of these elements. This relationship has been particu- 

 larly emphasized by Selye in his many papers describing the phenomena 

 associated with the "alarm reaction." This investigator has shown that 

 a variety of insults to the organism cause, along with adrenal cortical 

 hypertrophy, a rapid involution of the thymus and lymph nodes. 



Dr. White in my laboratory in association with Dr. Dougherty of 

 the Department of Anatomy at Yale have recently made a more detailed 

 analysis of this relationship (14). Their results may be summed up as 

 follows : 



(a) The number of circulating lymphocytes is under pituitary-adre- 

 nal control. The cortical hormones or the adrenotrophic hormone when 

 injected into normal animals cause a rapid decrease in the blood lympho- 

 cytes, reaching a maximum a few hours after injection. 



(b) The reduction in the blood lymphocytes is not due to an increased 

 rate of withdrawal by the tissues but is brought about by a rapid lym- 

 pholysis in the lymphoid tissues themselves. This is further emphasized 

 by the experiments of Reinhart, who found a fifty per cent reduction of 

 lymphocytes in the thoracic duct lymph within twenty minutes after the 

 injection of adrenotrophic hormone. 



(c) This lympholysis liberates into the lymph and ultimately into the 

 blood serum the contents of the lymph cells. One of these constituents 

 has been identified as normal serum gamma globulin ; a second constitu- 

 ent is probably serum beta globulin. The rise in total serum globulin, 

 due almost entirely to these two globulins, has been shown by electro- 

 phoresis. 



These experiments indicate an entirely new efifect of cortical hor- 

 mones on protein metabolism. For by this action, intact cellular protein 

 molecules are translocated through the body fluids to all parts of the 

 organism. As in all instances of hormone action this process is not 

 initiated by the hormone but merely altered in the rate at which it pro- 



