THE ANTERIOR PITUITARY AS THE ADRENAL CENTER. 225 



most satisfactory condition, with every probability of a prompt 

 and final recovery. On January 4th i.e., three weeks late?' 

 Professor Peugniez, having visited her, was shocked at her 

 appearance. A few days had sufficed to bring her to the last 

 degree of emaciation; the lids were wide apart, so great was 

 the exophthalmos, and pus exuded from the conjunctival re- 

 cesses. "Galloping cachexia" supervened, soon ending in death. 



If all these facts are collectively considered, they not only 

 show that a direct functional communication exists between 

 the anterior pituitary body and the adrenals through the cer- 

 vico-thoracic ganglionic chain of the sympathetic system, its 

 greater splanchnic nerve, and the semilunar ganglia, but that 

 the system thus formed is an autonomous one, of which the 

 suprarenal secretion in more or less great quantities is the 

 primary functional result. 



The existence of such a system and its true importance 

 are further emphasized when the direct connection between 

 the adrenals and cardiac action is further analyzed. On the 

 other hand, the cause of the baneful effects of resection of the 

 sympathetic ganglia, and particularly its influence upon the 

 rapidity of the heart-beats, become apparent when we realize 

 that the heart primarily owes its activity to the secretion of 

 the adrenals. That cases survive the operation at all is due to 

 direct spino-adrenal nerve-paths, survivals of the earlier days 

 of life, as will be shown. 



We have seen that when Schafer and Oliver injected supra- 

 renal extract intravenously a great increase in cardiac and 

 respiratory activity was noticed. Was this due to a local effect 

 upon the heart itself or to an action upon the cardiac nerve- 

 centers? The marked effect of suprarenal extract on muscular 

 tissue indicates that the heart itself must have been stimulated. 

 As previously shown, detached pieces of vascular walls com- 

 pletely disconnected from their nerve-centers undergo contrac- 

 tion when suprarenal extract is applied to them. Even dried 

 tissues, as observed by Oliver, 68 respond to its action. After 

 using other extracts with little or no effect the latter investiga- 

 tor says: "The suprarenal extract invariably produced the 



Oliver: Journal of Physiology, Nos. 4 and 5, March 12, 1897. 



