142 CORTEX 



Strehl and Weiss 600 carried out a series of operations on cats, 

 guinea pigs, rabbits, rats, mice, and frogs and showed the fatal 

 outcome in all of these animals. 



To avoid the deleterious effects of trauma, Biedl 56 devised 

 the following operative technique: He first dislocated the 

 glands from their normal position and, with their blood vessels 

 intact, attached them subcutaneously. Several days later, 

 he removed the glands through a skin incision. His results 

 confirmed his predecessors' views regarding the indispensability 

 of the glands for life. 



The earlier work cited above indicated that adrenalectomy 

 was rapidly fatal in most animals. Subsequent work during 

 the last two decades has shown, however, that, with a more 

 refined technique and certain precautions, one can adrenalec- 

 tomize cats, dogs, monkeys, and other mammals and have 

 them survive for a few days to a few weeks in good condition. 

 The rapidity with which death followed the operation in the 

 hands of the earlier workers is attributable to the operative 

 shock, hemorrhage, and general manhandling to which the 

 animals were subjected. However, even in recent years expert 

 surgeons have reported results little better, as regards the 

 survival period of their animals, than those of the early part of 

 the century. It is only with the development of some degree 

 of skill and observation of certain precautions involved in 

 the operative technique that the more prolonged survivals 

 are attainable. 



Until recent years, the rat, mouse, and rabbit were con- 

 sidered as exceptional in that adrenalectomy was supposed 

 to be fatal in only a small fraction of these animals. 198 As 

 shall be shown later, this view is erroneous being based on the 

 results of an incomplete extirpation. With proper technique 

 adrenalectomy in all the common laboratory animals can be 

 carried out with recovery of the animals from the immediate 

 effects of the operation and the ultimate development of a 

 fatal adrenal insufficiency. 



