VARIATIONS IN ADRENAL FUNCTIONAL ACTIVITY. 27 



that the circulation alone may keep up the suprarenal func- 

 tions? The experiments of Soddu 66 seem to throw light upon 

 this question. In order to ascertain the role of the suprarenal 

 peripheral nerves, this investigator isolated the glands of sev- 

 eral dogs from their external connections, leaving only the 

 blood-vessels. Although eight animals were submitted to this 

 operation, none died, and all, after a few days, were in their 

 normal health. It is evident that, if the blood alone can thus 

 sustain the life of the organs, an increased flow into them 

 under, perhaps, the influence of toxic blood upon the centers 

 of their nerve-supply will involve a corresponding increase 

 of functional activity. That very large or overwhelming doses 

 of any poisonous agency should produce the contrary effect and 

 arrest the functions of the adrenals by annihilating those of 

 their center is suggested by the pathogenesis of suprarenal 

 hemorrhage. 



Still, this involves the existence of an intrinsic nervous 

 supply capable of producing an increased flow of blood into 

 the glands under the stress of an acute toxaemia and a corre- 

 sponding increase of vascular tension. By suddenly calling the 

 suprarenal functions into violent activity, an excessive dose 

 would thus paralyze them or cause what Arnaud has termed 

 "suprarenal apoplexy": i.e., intrinsic hemorrhage. To ascer- 

 tain whether such a nervous influence can exist, and, if it does, 

 whether a poison can stimulate the glands through the latter's 

 nerve-supply, is necessary before further progress can be made. 



Biedl 67 studied the effects of various poisons, particularly 

 atropine, to ascertain whether they influenced the character 

 or quantity of suprarenal secretion, and obtained negative re- 

 sults. But can this be said to apply to all poisons? A close 

 analysis of this physiologist's work has led us to interpret his 

 experiments in a manner that is not in accord with his con- 

 clusion. He states that he found blood-pressure to be increased 

 in the organ by the interruption of artificial respiration. This 

 interruption appears to us to point to an accumulation in the 

 organism of products of metabolism, and therefore of poisons of 

 a class which stand out prominently as the basis of phenomena 



66 Soddu : Lo Sperimentale, No. 2, 1898. 



Biedl: Pfluger's Archiv, vol. Ixvii, H. 9 and 10, 1897. 



