220 Freeman, Pincus, Elmadjian and Romanoff 



Two test procedures were used: (1) the injection of 25 mg. 

 of ACTH intramuscularly as a direct means of studying the 

 effects of the stimulated adrenal cortex, (2) the ingestion of 

 glucose, using the Exton-Rose technique, which acts on the 

 adrenal cortex presumably via the anterior pituitary. In the 

 ACTH test, under fasting conditions, measurements of 

 lymphocytes and eosinophils were made immediately prior 

 to the injection and one-half, two and four hours after the 

 injection. Urine collections were made from the period of 

 awakening (after discarding the first morning urine) to the 

 time of the injection (average time two hours), for two hours 

 after the injection, and for another two hours. In the case of 

 the glucose tolerance test, the lymphocyte and eosinophil 

 counts were made before the ingestion of the first 50 grams of 

 glucose, a half hour later just before the ingestion of the 

 second 50 grams of glucose, a half hour and two hours after 

 this. Urine collections were made for two hours before the 

 onset of the test and collected during the first hour and the 

 succeeding two hours after the ingestion of the first dose of 

 glucose. In the urine collections analyses were made for 

 creatinine, sodium, potassium, 17-ketosteroids, corticosteroids 

 as neutral reducing lipid and inorganic phosphates. The two 

 tests were done three days apart, the glucose tolerance always 

 being performed first so that no residual effects would be 

 obtained in the second test. 



Before discussing results which deal largely wdth urinary 

 metabolites, a first consideration in the aged should be an 

 evaluation of the efficiency of the renal excretory apparatus. 

 Previous investigations by Shock (1946), Da vies and 

 Shock (1950) and Miller, McDonald and Shock (1951) have 

 indicated a decrease in the functional capacity of the kidney 

 in the aged. It is with this point in view that we have analysed 

 some of the data concerning the excretion of creatinine. 



The mean values for urinary creatinine during the ACTH 

 and glucose tolerance tests are shown in Table I. The subjects 

 are divided into two groups on the basis of age, and further 

 subdivided into normal and schizophrenic men in each of the 



