EFFECTS ON THE SUPRARENAL GLANDS 



4 2I 



Lewis and Pappenheimer ('16) confirmed the occurrence of a normal post- 

 natal involution of the suprarenal cortex, which had often been confused with 

 pathological changes by the earlier investigators. They found no constant 

 change in the relative sizes of the suprarenal cortex and medulla in children 

 emaciated by malnutrition. 



Marfan ('21) remarked that the suprarenal glands are small in atrophic 

 infants. Huebschmann ('21) claimed that in acute nutritional disturbances 

 of infants there is a characteristic fatty infiltration of the liver, correlated with 

 a disappearance of lipoidal substances in the suprarenal glands. The cause 

 was held to be an autointoxication through abnormal products of intermediary 

 cell metabolism. 



Fig. 104. — Graph showing the individual weights of both suprarenal glands, according to 

 age, in atrophic infants of the first year. Curve of normal suprarenal weight from data com- 

 piled by Prof. R. E. Scammon, showing the rapid normal postnatal decrease, followed by 

 a slow increase. The larger dots represent original Minnesota cases; the others are atrophic 

 infants from various sources. While there is a wide individual variation, in most cases the 

 suprarenals are clearly subnormal in weight. 



In famine-stricken children 1-16 years old, Nicolaeff ('23) found the 

 suprarenal glands sometimes apparently hypertrophied, but usually 5-37 

 per cent subnormal in weight according to age. Microscopic examination 

 showed abundance of cortical lipoids. Stefko ('23, '23a) noted marked sup- 

 rarenalchanges. Stephani ('23) found the fat changes inconstant. 



The weights of the suprarenal glands in all available cases of atrophic 

 infants during the first year of life are shown in Fig. 104. It will be noted 

 that the postnatal involution occasions a normal decrease in weight from 8 g. at 

 birth to about 4.4 g. by the end of the first month, with a very slow increase 

 thereafter. In most cases, the weight of the suprarenals in the atrophic 



