PHYSIOLOGY OF EPINEPHRINE 95 



It has been found that epinephrine is detectable in the blood of 

 the adrenal veins so long as the nerve supply to the glands is 

 intact. There is thus presumably a steady secretion of epi- 

 nephrine into the circulation. The exact amount of this secre- 

 tion has been a matter of controversy. The ease with which 

 an increased secretion is stimulated renders difficult the attain- 

 ment of truly normal basal values for the unavoidable manip- 

 ulations (particularly anesthesia) would be expected to give 

 too high values. The lowest values obtained are those of 

 Satake* and his collaborators whose method, as we have seen, 

 involves less abnormal conditions than those of other authors. 



In a series of twenty dogs, Satake* and his collaborators 545 

 found the epinephrine content of the blood from the adrenal 

 vein to vary from 0.00005 to 0.000225 with an average of 

 0.0001 mgms. per cc. The total output from both glands was 

 equal to 0.00007 mgms. per kilo of body weight per minute. 



The results just quoted are of a much smaller magnitude 

 than the oft-quoted results of Stewart and Rogoff. 587 The 

 rate of epinephrine secretion as measured by the latter authors 

 was about 0.00025 milligrams per minute per kilogram of body 

 weight. This rate was approximately the same in cats, dogs, 

 monkeys, and probably (judging from the values obtained by 

 other authors) in many other animal species. The results 

 obtained by Stewart and Rogoff are probably abnormally high 

 because of the stimulating effect of the operative procedures 

 involved in preparing the "cava-pocket." The preparation 

 of the "cava-pocket" as Satake* and his collaborators showed 

 stimulates the secretion of epinephrine unless the animal is 

 deeply anesthetized. 546 



Except for the blood of the adrenal vein, the epinephrine 

 content of the blood stream is so slight as to be undetectable by 

 most methods of analysis. 92 Thus Whitehorn, 675 using a 

 method capable of detecting one part of epinephrine in fifty 

 million parts of blood, was unable to detect this substance in 

 the peripheral venous blood of man. Euler 188 using his method 



