Pharmacology 177 



general action ol the alkaloid were hypertrophy ot the adrenal cor- 

 tex, Avhere no mitoses ^\■ere to be seen, hypertrophy of the Langerhans' 

 islets, and hvijerbasojihilia of the anterior lobe of the pitnitar\. These 

 weie considered to bring e\idence of an "alarni-reaciion,"' that is to say, 

 a nonspecific j^itnitarx -adrenal stininlation. Ihe kidneys did not 

 shoAV an\ particular chani^es. \viih the exce))tion of a \ery small 



^ ^?^ 



^^ 



^ 



M A+T 



M A+T 



Fig. 7.1 — Colchicine poisoning in man. Metaphasic arrest in the bone marrow, left, 



granulocytes; Right, erythroblasts. The shaded areas indicate the normal repartition 



and variation in the percentage of each stage. (After P. Dustin" ) 



number of mitoses. Mitoses arrested by colchicine could be iound 

 both in exocrine and endocrine tissues of the pancreatic gland. 



The principal findings were (I) the persistence of mitotic changes 

 long after the ingestion of colchicine, indicating that this substance 

 is only slo^vh metabolized, (2) evidence of a general toxic reaction, 

 and (3) considerable changes in the li\er, where the proliferation of 

 hepatic cells was made c\ident b\ ihe nn"lotic "stasis" ])r()duced by 



