Section IV, 1917 ti25] Trans. R.S.C. 



The Question as to the Relative Importance to Life of Cortex and Medulla 

 of the Adrenal Bodies. 



By T. D. Wheeler and Swale Vincent. 



(From the Physiological Laboratory, University of Manitoba, 



Winnipeg.) 



(Read May Meeting, 1917.) 



The older extirpation experiments upon mammals did not defi- 

 nitely determine the question, as to which constituent of the adrenal 

 body is essential to life, or whether, indeed, it is to the suppression of 

 the compound organ in its entirety that we must attribute death 

 after extirpation. Bittorf^ believes there is no special part of the organ 

 which is of supreme importance in the pathology of Addison's disease. 

 He considers that the adrenal bodies are single organs, clearly essential 

 for life, interference with which causes definite ill results. H. and A. 

 Cristiani and Vassale concluded from experiments upon mammals 

 that the medulla is the vitally essential constituent, while Wiesel 

 came to the conclusion that the cortex is the part essential to life. 



BiedF states that in mammals he has succeeded in removing the 

 cortex, leaving the medulla behind intact, and that the operation was 

 followed by death of the animals; so, he concludes that it is the cortex 

 which is essential to life. Most workers will be tempted to consider 

 that such a separation of cortex and medulla is well nigh impossible. 

 Moreover, Vassale^ in attempting the same experiment obtained 

 opposite results. Ciaccio believes that the medulla is the portion 

 essential to life. 



BiedP says that he has succeeded in determining for the inter- 

 renal of Elasmobranchs that after its extirpation the animals can live 

 two or three weeks, and then die with symptoms of general prostra- 

 tion, just as do mammals after extirpation of both dual adrenals. 

 Again, he concludes that the cortex is the essential part. These 

 experiments upon Elasmobranches must be very difficult, but they 

 certainly seem to point to the cortex as the vitally essential tissue. 

 The validity of these experiments is, of course, based upon the as- 



iBittorf: Deutsch, Arch. f. klin. Med., 1910, p. 116. 

 «Biedl: Weiner, Klinick. 1903, Vol. XXIX. 

 ^Vassale: Arch., ital. d Biol., 1905, Vol. XLIII. 



