164 CORTEX 



At first there is a spasticity of the legs. The animal walks un- 

 steadily, lurches from side to side, and may fall. Weakness 

 of the hind legs may progress until they can no longer be 

 moved and the animal drags itself on the floor. It finally lies 

 feebly on its side with limp legs and its head hanging low. 



The muscular weakness of adrenal insufficiency is not due 

 to lack of intrinsic muscular power, for even in moribund ani- 

 mals the muscles can be stimulated to normal activity. 180 

 However, after incomplete adrenalectomy in rats, one observes 

 a marked asthenia and diminution in the body activity. 167 The 

 isolated muscles of animals in insufficiency have been shown to 

 be more easily fatigued than those of normal animals. This 

 may possibly be due to an abnormal accumulation of lactic 

 acid in the stimulated muscle of adrenalectomized animals or 

 to their carbohydrate impoverishment. 377 Intravenous injec- 

 tion of epinephrine, by raising the blood pressure in moribund 

 animals, will often cause a disappearance of the extensor 

 rigidity which characterises the late stage of insufficiency. 

 There is thus no interference with the control of the skeletal 

 muscles by the central nervous system in adrenal insufficiency 

 and the observed prostration and muscular weakness are not 

 attributable to a paralysis of the skeletal muscles or their 

 nerves. 180 



BODY TEMPERATURE 



In adrenal insufficiency the body temperature gradually 

 drops 440 reaching values which may be lower than 32°C. at 

 death (Figure 10). During the first hours after adrenalectomy 

 or after a sub-lethal injury to the adrenals there may be an eleva- 

 tion of the body temperature (cf. Chapter XIII). These 

 changes in the body temperature are reflections of correspond- 

 ing alterations in the basal metabolic rate which shall be dis- 

 cussed in greater detail in Chapter XIII. 



RESPIRATION 



Hyperpnoea is a common symptom in the early stages of 

 adrenal insufficiency. Some authors 71 have attributed to this 



