58 ANATOMY 



puberty, while in the female it undergoes involution shortly 

 after ovulation is well established. 318 This disappearance of 

 the androgenic tissue is not a result of a decreased demand of 

 the organism for interrenal tissue, for removal of one adrenal 

 does not prevent the observed involution of the androgenic 

 tissue in the remaining gland. 320 The probable relation of 

 the androgenic tissue to the reproductive system is indicated 

 by the changes which it undergoes at puberty, during preg- 

 nancy, 231 after castration in the male, 318 and by the disorders 

 of the reproductive system, described in Chapter XXIII, which 

 are accompanied by hypertrophy of this tissue. 



THE ANDROGENIC TISSUE IN MAN 



During early embryonic life the human adrenal exceeds the 

 kidney in size; at birth it is one-third as large as the kidney. 

 This large size of the adrenal at birth is due to the presence of 

 a relatively thick zone of tissue separating the true cortex (or 

 interrenal tissue) from the medulla. This tissue has been con- 

 sidered by previous authors as part of the interrenal system 

 and as exercising the same function as the rest of the cortex. 

 Such a view, however, fails to take into account the facts to be 

 presented below and we shall therefore consider this tissue 

 which comprises what we have designated as the androgenic 

 zone, as a glandular entity, specific in its function, and to be 

 differentiated from the rest of the cortex. 



Much of the tissue which has in the past been described as 

 accessory cortical tissue is, in reality, also a part of this andro- 

 genic tissue and completely independent functionally from the 

 cortex proper and the true adrenal cortical accessory bodies. 

 This accessory tissue is very common in man at birth, disap- 

 pearing during infancy with the androgenic zone of the main 

 gland but persisting in cases of hermaphroditism (cf. Chapter 

 XXIII) and occasionally giving rise to tumors which in the 

 female cause adrenal virilism. These accessory adrenals are 

 situated at some distance from the main glands and are re- 



