26 THE PHYSIOLOGY OP THE ADRENALS. 



blood into the vena cava. But, as shown by Alezais and 

 Arnaud 62 in 1890, this blood is also arterial. We thus have a 

 short arterial circuit, or loop, which, besides furnishing the 

 adrenals their intrinsic and functional blood-supply, evidently 

 has for its purpose the immediate return to the general cir- 

 culation of a small quantity of arterial blood charged with what 

 Claude Bernard (1867) has well termed an "internal secretion." 



More in keeping with experimentally-established facts are 

 the views which attribute to the secretion itself, when in the 

 blood-stream, the antitoxic functions referred to. Thus, 

 Abelous and Langlois, 63 after a series of careful experiments, 

 reached the conclusion that their normal function was to 

 elaborate an internal secretion capable of neutralizing or de- 

 stroying the poisonous substances resulting from muscular 

 contractions: a fact further demonstrated to them by the 

 mitigating effects of injected suprarenal extract. More re- 

 cently these observers 64 amplified their views and concluded 

 that, after removal of both adrenals, there was a true auto- 

 intoxication, the animals generating poisons which were nor- 

 mally either destroyed or changed in the interior of the glands 

 or by material formed by the organs and poured into the blood. 

 The poisons, they thought, were probably products of muscular 

 activity and also of bacterial origin, and exerted a special in- 

 fluence on the heart and circulatory system. Mosse 65 also be- 

 lieved that the adrenals produced a stimulating substance and 

 that they could simultaneously neutralize poisons formed in 

 various parts of the organism. 



Reasoning by analogy, we can surmise that the metabolism 

 of the organs is principally maintained by the passage of blood 

 through them and that the internal secretion represents the 

 physiological product of their metabolism. Under these cir- 

 cumstances, the quantity of blood in them at a given time 

 would stand as the controlling factor, the quantity of active 

 principle secreted into the general circulation being propor- 

 tionate to this quantity. Have we any ground for the belief 



82 Alezais and Arnaud: Quoted by Arnaud, loc. cit., p. 34. 



83 Abelous and Langlois: Archives de Physiologic norm, et path., vol. iii, p. 

 267, 1892. 



8 * Abelous and Langlois: "Travaux de Laboratoire," Lancet, Aug. 20, 1898. 

 M Mosse: Fortschritte der Medicin, No. 21, 1897. 



