EFFECTS ON THE SUPRARENAL GLANDS 



419 



keine Verminderung des Fettgehaltes konstatieren konnen, sondern im Gegen- 

 satz zu den anderen Autoren reichlich Fett gefunden." 



Landau ('13) found that there may even be an increase in suprarenal lipoids 

 in some cases of human inanition, such as stenosis from pyloric ulcer, and in 

 other pyogenic conditions; but a reduction in suprarenal lipoids was found in 

 tuberculosis and in septic-toxic conditions in general. The suprarenal lipoid 

 content is considered secondary to the lipoid content of the body in general, 

 but shows no evident relation to the general nutritive condition. 



Meyer ('17) in a man who died of starvation noted that "In some portions 

 the glomerular cells of the adrenal are mere webs and great cell disintegration is 

 present. The atrophy is very marked and many shadowy cells are seen. The 

 parenchyma contains many open spaces; the medulla is not only greatly reduced 

 in size, but is greatly vacuolated, and almost completely destroyed in places." 



Roessle ('19) concluded from a large series of necropsies on soldiers that the 

 suprarenal may undergo changes such as edema or exhaustion of its lipoid 

 content, but he established no relation between these changes and emaciation. 

 Byrne ('19) in 8 necropsies on soldiers dying from underfeeding in a prison 

 camp found the suprarenals about 50 per cent enlarged (which agrees with 

 recent experimental data to be mentioned later). The enlargement seemed 

 to be chiefly in the cortex. 



The data of Krieger ('20) likewise show an increased weight of the supra- 

 renal glands in emaciated soldiers (excepting in diarrheas), as shown by the 

 accompanying table. This, however, adopts v. Gierke's norm of n. 6 g. for 

 the weight of both suprarenals, which is lower than Vierordt's (14.8 g.) or 

 Roessle's (14. 1 g.). 



1 Normal according to Vierordt is 0.02 per cent. 



Pellegrini ('20) observed a slight apparent decrease in the suprarenals of 

 war prisoners who died from inanition. Leupold ('20?) concluded that after 

 the completion of growth neither acute nor chronic diseases have any influence 

 upon the weight of the suprarenal glands. Schilf ('22) has recently analyzed 

 the data from 1,227 necropsies (at Jena) including 423 from the war period. 

 He concludes that in general the suprarenal weight is independent of the nutri- 

 tive condition of the body, although it appears somewhat decreased in the 

 tuberculous group. 



