19".] CANNON— STIMULATION OF ADRENAL SECRETION. 227 



lowing reasons : ( i ) The effect was obtained in blood from the vena 

 cava near the liver when that from the femoral vein taken simul- 

 taneously produced no inhibition. (2) Removal of the adrenal 

 glands after tying the adrenal vessels resulted in a failure of excite- 

 ment to produce the eft'ect. (3) Adding varying amounts of adre- 

 nalin to inactive blood evoked all the degrees of relaxation that have 

 been observed in excited blood. (4) Excited blood which produced 

 prompt inhibition lost that power on standing or on being agitated by 

 bubbling oxygen. These conditions, together with the evidence that 

 sympathetic impulses increase the secretion of the adrenal glands, 

 and that during such emotional excitement as was here employed 

 signs of sympathetic discharges were observable in the animal from 

 the eye to the tip of the tail, prove that the relaxing eft'ect was due 

 to adrenal secretion. 



Injected adrenalin is capable of inducing an atheromatous con- 

 dition of the arterial wall in rabbits, especially in elderly individuals, 

 and is also capable of evoking hyperglycemia with glycosuria. As 

 Ascher has shown by prolonged stimulation of the splanchnic nerves 

 prolonged adrenal secretion with maintained high blood-pressure can 

 be produced. In the light of the results here reported the temptation 

 is strong to suggest that some phases of these pathologic states are 

 associated with the strenuous and exciting character of modern life 

 acting through the adrenal glands. Two of my students, Shohl and 

 Wright, have recently shown that excitement of the cat results, in 

 all cases thus far examined (more than a dozen), in glycosuria. 

 Possibly in the wild state emotions were useful in providing material 

 for excessive muscular exertion that might follow, and that muscular 

 activity would utilize the sugar so that it would not appear in the 

 urine. This suggestion, however, must be put to further test. 



PROC. AMER. PHIL. SOC, I,, I99 O, PRINTED JUNE 28, I9II. 



