BLOOD CHEMISTRY 193 



Other observers have, however, demonstrated marked abnor- 

 malities of the sodium and chloride concentrations of the blood 

 of patients in adrenal insufficiency. Thus Loeb 399 found the 

 sodium content of two patients to be 108 and 109 millimoles 

 per liter as compared to 138 for normal individuals. The 

 serum potassium in these patients was 8.7 and 8.1 millimoles 

 per liter compared to 4.8 for the normal. The chloride was 

 reduced from its normal value of 105 to 70 and 73 millimoles, 

 respectively. These observations led Loeb to suggest the 

 use of sodium chloride in the treatment of Addison's disease, 

 with dramatic improvement in some cases. 



SALT THERAPY IN ADRENAL INSUFFICIENCY 



The derangement of the salt metabolism in adrenal insuffi- 

 ciency will obviously exert a deleterious effect on the organism 

 and any method tending to restore the normal balance will 

 have a beneficent effect in mitigating such symptoms as are 

 attributable to this deficiency. The fact that injection of 

 saline or of Ringer's solution is capable of extending the life of 

 adrenalectomized animals was first demonstrated by Soddu 580 

 and independently proven by Marine and Baumann, 435 Stewart 

 and Rogoff, 531 and many recent observers. 



In figure 16 is shown the beneficent effects of administering 

 1.0 gram of sodium chloride plus 0.5 gram of sodium bicar- 

 bonate daily (mixed in their regular food) to six adrenalecto- 

 mized rats. Such adjuvant therapy, as seen in figure 16, 

 results in a material prolongation of life, but it does not permit 

 normal growth in young animals nor does it avert ultimate 

 death from adrenal insufficiency. The claim 541 that adminis- 

 tration of salts or Ringer's solution, admixed with the food or 

 in lieu of the animals' supply of drinking water, permits the 

 indefinite survival of adrenalectomized rats has not been con- 

 firmed by the author nor by other observers. The apparent 

 indefinite survival and normal growth of animals on a replace- 

 ment therapy consisting solely of inorganic salts must be 



