CHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF ADRENAL SECRETION. 69 



frozen lung-tissue, as hard as wood, as well. Horse-lungs and 

 kidneys kept from twelve to fourteen days in alcohol at sev- 

 enty-five degrees, even after having become sodden with physio- 

 logical saline solution, etc., were found fully active. Abelous 

 and Biarnes 143 successfully used blood alone as an oxidizant, 

 but only tulien a continuous current of air traversed the blood 

 treated with salicylic aldehyde. Schafer and subsequently Auld 

 also observed that the activity of suprarenal extract was not 

 in the least impaired when blood and the extract were mixed 

 in vitro even when allowed to stand some time. 



Salkowski 144 repeated the experiments of Schmiedeberg 

 and Jaquet, in order to ascertain the differential oxidizing 

 powers of various viscera. The following proportions of sali- 

 cylic acid were obtained from salicylic aldehyde placed in 

 contact a definite time with 100 grammes of the following 

 organic tissues: Liver, 138 milligrammes; spleen, 110 milli- 

 grammes; kidneys, 22 milligrammes; pancreas, 2.8 milli- 

 grammes; and muscle, 1.4 milligrammes. This clearly demon- 

 strates, at least, that the liver and spleen are by far the organs 

 that take up and fix the greatest proportion of oxygen, and 

 that, of all organs, the liver is the most active oxidizing agent. 

 Now, Langlois found that maceration of hepatic tissue with 

 suprarenal extract greatly decreased the activity of the latter. 

 The remarkable affinity for oxygen possessed by the extract 

 normally suggests that, like salicylic acid, it must have become 

 oxidized at the expense of the liver-tissue and that it is through 

 this reaction that its' activity became impaired. Still, the con- 

 trary might be the case and the liver acquire its own oxygen- 

 storing properties from the secretion of the adrenals and take 

 it up from the blood while the latter is in transit through it. 

 Under these circumstances it would also acquire the blood- 

 pressure-raising power of the secretion. That such is not the 

 case, however, is evident. Swale Vincent could not obtain the 

 effects of suprarenal extract with either liver or spleen extracts; 

 neither could Mankowsky 145 from extracts of liver, pancreas, 

 thyroid, lymphatic glands, parotid, kidney, spleen, cerebrum, 



148 Abelous and Biarn6s: Archives de Physiologic, 1895. 



144 Salkowski: Virchow's Archiv, Jan. 4, 1897. 



145 Mankowsky: Russian Arch., March, 1898. 



