3 
Mat had previously described after a study of the organ by means 
of digested frozen sections. In studying the framework of the ad- 
renal I have used principally the methods of digestion and find that 
the interstitial tissue is similar to the reticulum which Mau has 
found in the liver, kidney, spleen, lymphatic glands, intestine ete. 
Inasmuch as the connective tissue of the adrenal has never been 
studied by any of the destructive methods there is no literature on 
the framework per se, but much has, however, been written con- 
cerning the arrangement of the connective tissue as it is seen in 
sections. According to Ecker!) the connective tissue of the cortex 
is formed of homogeneous membranes that surround the gland tubules 
(Drüsenschläuche) which make up the cortical portion of the gland, 
while the medulla consists of a network of fibres containing in its 
meshes a quantity of “molecular material with nuclei and nucleated 
globules”. KOELLIKER ?) believed that the capsule gave off fibrous 
laminae which divide the cortex into oblong spaces containing the 
cells and from these laminae the stroma of the medulla is derived 
which, however, he does not describe. Lrypic*) thought that the 
connective tissue of the cortex is derived from the capsule and runs 
in parallel strands at right angles to it; these strands with numerous 
transverse septa divide the cortex into small spaces which contain the 
cells. The medulla, according to this investigator, functions as a 
nerve centre and its interstitial tissue forms a fine network of fibrils 
which supports the ganglion cells. According to HArLEY *), who was 
the first to study stained sections of the adrenal, the cortex is not 
composed of tubules, but of columns of cells surrounded by connective 
tissue. In the medulla he was unable to find a basement membrane 
surrounding the cell groups. Morrs®) described smooth muscle and 
elastic fibres in the capsule and holds that the cells of the cortex are 
not supported by basement membranes or by thicker processes of 
connective tissue, but rest in the meshes of a fine fibrillar network. 
The medulla, likewise, shows only slight differences in structure from 
the cortex and its stroma is also in the form of a meshwork. Re- 
garding the framework of the cortex, JOESTEN ®) is in accord with 
1) Ecker, Der feinere Bau der Nebennieren beim Menschen und 
den vier Wirbeltierklassen. Braunschweig 1846. 
2) KoELLIKER, Mikroskopische Anatomie, 1854. 
3) Leypie, Lehrbuch der Histologie des Menschen, 1857. 
4) Harıey, Lancet, June 5th and 12th, 1858. 
5) Moers, Vircnow’s Arch., 1864. 
6) Joesten, Arch. f. Heilkunde, 1864. 
jr 
