FUNCTIONS OF THE LACRYMAL GLANDS. 267 



ganglion from each of three cats, and reviewed their results 

 as follows: "In one of the cats (three and a half months old) 

 an injection of 1 centigramme of pilocarpine, given three weeks 

 after the operation, produced lacrymal secretion of the eye of 

 the normal side, while the eye of the operated side remained 

 dry. In the second cat (about two months old) 5 milligrammes 

 of pilocarpine were injected one month after the removal of 

 the left stellate ganglion. In this case the result was alto- 

 gether different. Both eyes wept, but the eye of the operated 

 side more profusely than the other. About an hour after the 

 injection there was still considerable lacrymal secretion from 

 the eye of the operated side, while the other eye was dry. 

 In the third cat (about six weeks old) an instillation of a 2-per- 

 cent, solution of pilocarpine was made in both eyes, four and 

 one-half months after the operation. The effect was an equal 

 amount of lacrymal secretion in both eyes." The authors then 

 close the subject with the following remarks: "These results 

 are rather contradictory, and further experimentation must be 

 made to harmonize them and to allow of a correct interpreta- 

 tion. It must be taken into consideration, of course, that the 

 age of the animals varied, as did also the period (after the 

 operation) at which the pilocarpine was administered. The 

 manner of administration of the poison was different also." 



Viewed from our standpoint, these experiments do not 

 appear contradictory; indeed, they may enable us to ascertain 

 the identity of the nervous structures involved and the manner 

 in which the functions of the gland are carried out. Obviously, 

 removal of the stellate ganglion on the one side severed the 

 connection between the anterior pituitary lobe and the ad- 

 renal on that side. Pilocarpine injections, by stimulating the 

 anterior pituitary, caused the latter to transmit activating im- 

 pulses through the perfect ganglionic chain to the terminal 

 adrenal of that chain; but, the secretion of both adrenals being 

 poured into the one channel, the end-result of the injection 

 of pilocarpine, as regards its effects upon the lacrymal glands 

 per se, was merely a reduction of the intensity of the local 

 symptoms, through a corresponding reduction of the vascular- 

 pressure increase which both glands would have produced. 

 Still, judging from its effects upon the normal lacrymal gland, 



