CHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF ADRENAL SECRETION. 65 



when injected, cause a rise of blood-pressure. Abel and Craw- 

 ford 130 noted that it could not be isolated from the active com- 

 pound by boiling with acids: a conclusion further corroborated 

 by von Fiirth. 131 



Moore 132 studied the chemical reactions noted by Vulpian 

 from another standpoint. Having noticed that the blood- 

 pressure-raising properties of a previously active substance dis- 

 appeared after the color-reactions were destroyed by oxidizing 

 the reducing agent, he was led to conclude that the color-giving 

 constituent of the suprarenal substance was the same as the 

 blood-pressure-raising constituent. The solubilities of both 

 were similar, while both, also, were found only in the medulla 

 or in the suprarenal vein. Manasse 133 obtained from the supra- 

 renal medulla a substance resembling greatly in chemical prop- 

 erties Drechsel's jecorin, but its reducing power was found to 

 differ in several particulars from that described by Vulpian 

 and Moore. Friinkel, 134 by utilizing the more advanced meth- 

 ods of organic chemistry, also reached the conclusion that Vul- 

 pian's chromogen and the blood-pressure-raising constituent 

 were identical, and called it "sphygmogenin" : a nitrogenous 

 derivative of the orthodioxybenzine series. He succeeded in 

 isolating the jecorin-like body obtained by Manasse and Vul- 

 pian's reducing substance, and attributed to the latter the 

 blood-pressure-raising attributes. 



A closer investigation of the whole subject was then un- 

 dertaken by J. J. Abel and A. C. Crawford, 135 of Johns Hop- 

 kins University, who recalled that all previous work had 

 brought forth conclusions based on reactions made with aqueous, 

 alcoholic, or acetonic extracts only, and that so far no definite 

 chemical compound had been isolated. They found, by isolat- 

 ing the blood-pressure-raising constituent, Vulpian's chromo- 

 gen, in the form of a benzoate, and, decomposing it, that the 

 active principle was a substance which could, in all probability, 

 be classed with the pyridine bases or alkaloids, or the pyrrol 



30 Abel and Crawford: Johns Hopkins Hosp. Bull., July, 1897. 



31 Hoppe-Seyler: Zeitschrift fur Physiol. Chemie, vol. xxiv. 



32 Moore: Journal of Physiology, vol. xviii, p. 230. 



33 Manasse: Zeitschrift fur Physiol. Chemie, vol. xx, p. 478, 1895. 

 8 *Frankel: Wiener med. Blatter, Nos. 14, 15, and 16, 1896. 



86 J. J. Abel and A. C. Crawford: Johns Hopkins Hosp. Bull., July, 1897. 



