158 CORTEX 



cortical hormone will permit the hypertrophy of these acces- 

 sories or fragments of the main gland left at operation and sub- 

 sequent survival of the animal. Failure to appreciate this 

 fact has undoubtedly led to many of the erroneous claims of 

 successful replacement therapy. Only by careful micro- 

 scopic observation of the tissues at the adrenal sites can one 

 determine the completeness of a given operation. 



The oft-quoted claims of Wiesel, 676 regarding the occurrence 

 of accessory bodies in the rat in the region of the epididymis, has 

 never been confirmed by subsequent investigators. 198 ' 335 

 Wiesel claimed to have proven functional capacity of the 

 epididymal accessory bodies by performing left-sided adrenal- 

 ectomy in 10 young male rats which were killed 3 to 12 weeks 

 later. The normally microscopic accessories in the region of the 

 epididymus were found to be hypertrophied to the huge size 

 of 5 mms. As pointed out by Jaffe, 335 it is doubtful if such 

 hypertrophy ever occurs in accessories after unilateral ad- 

 renalectomy because compensation is rapidly effected by en- 

 largement of the remaining gland. Moreover, in several 

 hundred rats of different ages, Jaffe 332 was unable to demon- 

 strate by careful microscopic section any accessories in the 

 region of the testes, vas, or epididymis, in either normal or 

 adrenalectomized rats. Firor and the author have confirmed 

 Jaffe's findings. 198 



According to Jaffe gross accessory bodies are found in about 

 8 per cent of normal rats and in 20 to 25 per cent of doubly 

 adrenalectomized rats, but these are always situated near the 

 main glands. By adopting the technique described in Chapter 

 XVII, one can ensure the extirpation of these accessories 

 together with the main glands. 



RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF CORTEX AND MEDULLA 



That it is the cortex and not the medulla which is indis- 

 pensable for life has been demonstrated by a number of in- 

 vestigators. Biedl, 66 Wheeler and Vincent, 670 and Crowe and 



