270 CORTEX 



nary experiments also found the injection of small doses of the 

 cortical hormone to have no demonstrable influence on the 

 mortality of mice infected with mouse typhoid. Nor did the 

 infusion of 100 cc. of the cortical extract exert any demon- 

 strable influence on a patient dying of peritonitis (probably 

 pneumonic in origin). 



The above described experiments were too few in number 

 and involved the use of insufficient doses of the hormone to 

 make the results decisive. The reports of authors describing 

 therapeutic effects in various infections of man are based on 

 the use of extracts whose potency we know to be insignificant 

 and hence must be viewed with scepticism. Further experi- 

 ments using large doses of hormone are desirable to determine 

 if exhaustion of the adrenals in certain infections is in part re- 

 sponsible for the manifestations of these diseases. The evi- 

 dence available at present does not suggest that this occurs 

 except perhaps in rare cases. 



The fact that adrenalectomized animals succumb more 

 readily than normal animals to the effects of toxic agents is no 

 evidence, however, that the adrenal glands themselves play 

 any direct role in conferring natural immunity on the normal 

 animal. The facts only prove that in adrenal insufficiency the 

 organism is incapable of its normal response to such toxic in- 

 fluences due possibly to the incapacitation of the organs (e.g., 

 the liver or kidney) which normally excrete, destroy, or de- 

 toxify injected toxins or to a lowered resistance of the tissues 

 generally induced by the adrenal insufficiency. It would not 

 follow, therefore, that the adrenal cortical hormone will mani- 

 fest antidotal actions against toxic agents or, as has already 

 been indicated, that the hormone should manifest a therapeu- 

 tically beneficent effect when administered in infectious dis- 

 eases. The relation of the adrenals to the reaction of the 

 organism to toxins and infections offers an interesting field for 

 further study of the normal mechanism of these reactions. 



