CHEMICAL CONSTITUENTS 293 



B. It is well known, however, that adrenalectomized animals 

 are hypersensitive to any abnormal condition — the adminis- 

 tration of drugs, dietary deficiences, temperature extremes, 

 excitement, et cetera. Hence his observations indicate no 

 special relationship between the adrenals and vitamin B. 247 



Schmitz and Kuhnau and Lockwood and Hartman claimed 

 that they could ameliorate the symptoms of vitamin B de- 

 ficiency by administration of cortical extracts. 247 However, 

 since the adrenal cortex is rich in vitamin B content, it is im- 

 perative to remove all traces of this vitamin before one can 

 conclude that the effects observed after administering a given 

 extract are due to the cortical hormone rather than to simple 

 contamination by the vitamin. The cortical hormone as 

 prepared by these authors was a relatively crude extract 

 containing a number of constituents. When one considers the 

 difficulty of removing the last traces of vitamin B from rela- 

 tively pure casein or from refined lactose it is not unexpected 

 that crude cortical extracts should contain this vitamin. That 

 this contamination of the extracts was probably responsible 

 for the observations of Schmitz and Kiihnan and Lockwood 

 and Hartman was demonstrated by Grollman and Firor. 247 

 The last named authors demonstrated that the administration 

 of adrenal cortical extracts did not ameliorate the symptoms of 

 avitaminosis B and hence the assumption of an interrelation 

 between the hormone and the vitamin was unfounded. The 

 gross and histological changes occurring in the adrenals of 

 animals suffering from avitaminosis B is no more striking than 

 that which occurs in other endocrine glands and that might be 

 anticipated to result from the inanition and retardation in 

 growth which accompany vitamin B deficiency. 



Vitamin C (ascorbic acid). Vitamin C was first isolated in 

 crystalline form from the adrenal glands. While seeking the 

 active principle of the adrenal cortex, Szent-Gyorgi 6]5 isolated 

 a crystalline compound having the formula, C 6 H 8 6 , which 

 subsequent work showed to be identical with vitamin C. 



