THE ADRENAL GLAND 283 



ceeds. Once dispersed in this manner this protein must be metabolized 

 by the different tissues in a manner best suited to their requirements, 

 and these presumably vary according to their function. 



(d) Since it is well known that the gamma globulins are the fraction 

 of the serum proteins that carry the specific immune bodies, White and 

 Dougherty immunized animals to various antigens, both with and with- 

 out the injection of cortical hormones. In all cases the titre of the spe- 

 cific antibodies in the serum rose faster and to higher levels in the group 

 receiving the hormone. But this was not all. For if the injection of both 

 hormone and antigen was stopped and sufficient time allowed for the 

 serum titre of antibody largely to disappear, the injection of a single 

 dose of cortical hormone caused antibodies to reappear in a few hours 

 in the serum to levels reached during the height of immunization. Ex- 

 posure of immunized animals to any stimulus that causes adrenal cor- 

 tical secretion was followed by similar rapid increases in serum anti- 

 bodies. In other words this "anamnestic reaction" is a manifestation of 

 the control of lympholysis and serum globulin release by the cortical 

 hormones. 



It is apparent that the release of immune globulins in immunized ani- 

 mals is merely a special case of a general phenomenon, for similar quan- 

 tities of non-immune globulins are released along with other cellular 

 materials from the lymphocytes of non-immunized animals. Yet in the 

 immunized animals the actual release of cortical hormones confers a spe- 

 cific resistance to a particular infecting agent. Is there then a relation- 

 ship between the lympholysis occurring in non-immunized animals and 

 their resistance to such nonspecific stimuli as heat, cold, trauma, etc.? Is 

 such nonspecific resistance determined at least in part by the capacity of 

 the cortical hormones to liberate from the lymphoid elements into the 

 circulating fluids substances that are vital to the cells for a successful 

 defense against the distortion of their internal environment? This is an 

 unanswered but important question, but these experiments have opened 

 an entirely new line of thought, not only concerning the inability of 

 adrenalectomized or hypophysectomized animals to contend with the 

 factors that distort their internal environment, but also as to the mech- 

 anism of action of the cortical hormones. If nothing else, they lend em- 

 phasis to the point that there are still unexplored fields in our knowledge 

 of the function of the adrenal cortex. 



Such studies are for the future; and since this is so, I too must stand 

 with my predecessors of some 230 years ago before Baron Montesquieu 

 and say that I can only answer in part the question posed by the Acad- 



