CHAPTER VI. 



ADRENALINE (EPINEPHRIN, ADRENINE). 



BOTH on account of its powerful physiological activity and its exten- 

 sive therapeutic application, adrenaline is the most interesting of animal 

 bases. The physiological importance of the supra-renal glands was 

 first made clear by Addison [1849] who connected the disease, now 

 named after him, with a pathological condition of these glands. 

 Addison's work suggested an experimental investigation to Brown- 

 Sequard [1856, i, 2, 1857], who showed that extirpation of both 

 supra-renals soon brings about the death of an animal ; thus, on 

 the average, rabbits only survived the operation for nine hours. About 

 the same time Vulpian [1856, I, 2] observed that the medulla of the 

 supra-renal gland contains a specific substance, which in solution is 

 coloured green by ferric chloride and rose-red by iodine ; he also ob- 

 tained the same reactions with blood from the supra-renal vein. 



During the next forty years the " chromogen " was investigated by 

 Virchow [1857] who confirmed Vulpian's results without adding 

 fresh observations, by Arnold [1866], by Holm [1867], more fully 

 by Krukenberg [1885], and lastly by Brunner [1892], but none of 

 these authors were able to prepare the substance in anything like a 

 pure condition. The physiological action of supra-renal extracts was 

 the subject of papers by Pellacani [1879] an< ^ by Foa and Pellacani 

 [1884], who, however, failed to observe the rise of blood pressure so 

 highly characteristic of supra-renal extracts when injected intravenously. 

 A full account of the earlier investigations on the gland, up to 1895, 

 was given by Rolleston in his Goulstonian lectures [1895, under 

 general references]. There is also an extensive bibliography in a 

 paper by Szymonowicz, published in Pfluger's Archiv [1896], and in 

 a dissertation by Langlois [1897, under general references]. 



In 1 894 the subject entered upon a new phase and soon became of 

 great physiological and biochemical interest. In that year Oliver and 

 Schafer [1894] observed the remarkable rise of blood pressure caused 

 by supra-renal extracts on intravenous injection ; they showed that the 

 effect was due to vaso-constriction and also to a direct action on the 

 heart. This pressor action was discovered independently and almost 

 simultaneously by Szymonowicz [1895] w h found that the low 



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