CHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF ADRENAL SECRETION. 71 



rectly with suprarenal functions, but it constitutes one of the 

 most active suprarenal stimulants, judging from the character 

 of the symptoms to which it gives rise. Striking, for instance, 

 is the fact that its action is greatest on the right side of the 

 heart: a fact emphasized by many authorities, including Ringer, 

 Frangois Franck, Hale White, Germain See, and Openkowski. 

 As this is the side which the suprarenal secretion would first 

 reach, a strong indication is afforded that the stimulation we 

 ascribe to digitalis itself is really induced by the secretion of 

 the adrenals. It is evident, however, that the myocardium can- 

 not supply the required oxygen, since it only stands 1.4 milli- 

 grammes as a muscular structure to the liver's 138 in Salkow- 

 ski's series. Again, its structure and physiological functions in 

 no way indicate a connection with any chemical change in the 

 fluids that pass through it. 



The next organs are the lungs, the tissues of which, ac- 

 cording to Abelous and Biarnes, occupy a third place as oxidiz- 

 ing agents in the experimental series: i.e., immediately after 

 the spleen and liver. Yet, the reaction cannot occur in the 

 parenchyma to which these experiments refer, since, judging 

 by the effects of the suprarenal secretion throughout the entire 

 body, the whole volume of blood submitted to the respiratory 

 process must be utilized. May the suprarenal secretion be a 

 physiological factor of the respiratory gaseous interchanges? 



Among the symptoms observed after the extirpation of 

 both adrenals is dyspnoea. When the physiological and patho- 

 logical origin of this symptom is analyzed in the light of the 

 views submitted in the foregoing pages, the possibility that the 

 respiratory process may in some way be connected with the 

 suprarenal glands imposes itself. This can be illustrated by 

 what appears to us to be a sudden awakening of suprarenal 

 activity by one of our best agents for this purpose, strychnine. 

 "It produces in the dog," says Wood, "an extraordinary increase 

 in the respiratory movements"; his experiments have shown 

 that this "never amounted to less than 75 per cent., and some- 

 times rose to 300 per cent." He refers to Kionka's observation, 

 confirmed by Obermeier, 146 that "in the rabbit there is a 



146 Obermeier: Inaugural Dissertation; Erlangen, 1891. 



