THE ADRENALS, LEUCOCYTOSIS AND PHAGOCYTOSIS. 619 



scope is therefore probable. No accumulation of leucocytes 

 occurred under irritation and, when after a time they began 

 to accumulate, Binz at once checked them by a small hypoder- 

 mic injection of the alkaloid: a normal consequence, if the ad- 

 renal insufficiency had anything to do with the production of 

 leucocytosis. Again, Binz took two young cats, and, "after 

 poisoning one of them with quinine," says Wood, "examined 

 their blood. In the blood of the unpoisoned animal the white 

 cells were far more abundant than in that of the poisoned cat/' 

 It is from these experiments that Binz deduced that quinine 

 acted destructively upon leucocytes "in the same way as when 

 they are out of the body." If the role of the adrenal system 

 is what we deem it to be, the opposite is true: The poisoned 

 animal did not show leucocytosis because its adrenal system had 

 been rendered insufficient by the poison, while the unpoisoned 

 animal showed marked leucocytosis because its adrenal system 

 acted normally. As to the extra corpore effects of quinine upon 

 the blood, the reader has doubtless already thought of their 

 valuelessness if the, adrenal system is the source of toxic symp- 

 toms. 



It is probable that all the animals used for the experiments 

 referred to were given sufficiently large doses to produce ad- 

 renal insufficiency. Only small animals were used, and, if we 

 consider that 30 grains are sufficient to bring the adrenals of 

 some normal adults unaccustomed to quinine to the brink of 

 insufficiency, it is more than probable that the doses employed 

 in the experiments far exceeded those capable of only bringing 

 on the stage of excitement or overactivity. Wild, of all the 

 investigators referred to by Wood, is alone stated to have used 

 very weak solutions (1 part to 5000). In contradistinction to 

 the contraction of blood-vessels noted by others, he observed 

 "an enormous dilation of the vessels, with consequent increased 

 rapidity of passage through them of liquid under pressure." 

 The inference is obvious. 



Hare's remarks, supplemented by Wood's deductions, are 

 very interesting in this connection when the proposition sub- 

 mitted in the first chapter "muscular vessels and capillaries 

 are antagonistic in contraction and dilation" is recalled. 

 Hare, who had also been led to conclude that quinine prevented 



