46 THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE ADRENALS. 



observed in connection with poisons. Acetanilid in toxic doses 

 rapidly produces insufficiency. Even in repeated doses, accord- 

 ing to Wood, it may cause a peculiar cyanotic condition of 

 the face and extremities, while "the fall of temperature is ac- 

 companied by profuse sweating." . . . "In rare cases," 

 says the author, "the lowering of the bodily temperature has 

 been coincident with the occurrence of collapse." The transi- 

 tion from overactivity to insufficiency would thus seem to 

 occur at the onset of hypothermia, deficiency of suprarenal 

 secretion being indicated by the diastolic heart found after 

 <leath from collapse. The sweating must obviously be due to 

 the loss of tone of the muscles of the sweat-glands. In aconite 

 we first have the characteristic picture of injections of supra- 

 renal extract indicating suprarenal activity, followed by the 

 characteristic signs of insufficiency. "In frogs," writes Wood, 

 "the phenomena caused by aconite are similar to those seen in 

 man, and consist of, at first, a reduction and afterward an in- 

 crease in the rate of the heart's beat, with a loss of power in 

 the circulation, and finally irregular systolic movements, with 

 marked prolonged diastolic pauses ending in diastolic arrest." 

 Alcohol is referred to as acting upon the heart as a stimulant 

 in small doses and as causing marked increase of arterial press- 

 ure. A large dose, on the other hand, is followed by a fall of 

 arterial pressure and acts as a depressant and paralyzant. The 

 stimulation is doubtless exercised upon the suprarenal glands, 

 and the reaction stage marks the onset of insufficiency whose 

 manifestations progress as more alcohol is imbibed. Antimony 

 is another agent which, like acetanilid, seems rapidly to induce 

 suprarenal insufficiency. "In the lower animals," writes Wood, 

 "all doses of antimony sufficient to cause any apparent effect 

 progressively lower the arterial pressure; the pulse is some- 

 times at first temporarily accelerated, but usually the slowing 

 of the pulse occurs from the beginning of the poisoning. Dur- 

 ing this period of slow pulse the diastolic pauses are extremely 

 long and the pulse-waves greatly augmented, it may be to five 

 times their original size. After a time the pulse usually be- 

 comes very rapid, the pulse-waves very small, the arterial 

 pressure almost extinguished, and in a few minutes diastolic 

 arrest occurs." The process referred to in these remarks, 



