502 TEXT-BOOK OF. PHYSIOLOGY 



turbance of the digestive functions, indicated by indigestion, vomiting and 

 diarrhea; a feeble action of the heart; a small feeble pulse; a low blood-pres- 

 sure; a subnormal temperature and a feeble respiration. This condition, 

 which is thus largely characterized by a loss of tone in the skeletal as well aj 

 the vascular musculature, terminates fatally from a paralysis of the respira- 

 tory muscles. Post-mortem examination reveals in all cases a more or less 

 extensive disease of one or both adrenals. A very common lesion is a tuber- 

 cular degeneration. These symptoms were attributed by Addison to a loss 

 of function of the glands. 



The removal of these bodies from various animals by surgical procedure; 

 is invariably and in a short time followed by death, preceded by some of th< 

 symptoms characteristic of Addison' s disease. Thus, shortly after their re 

 moval the animal becomes tranquil and apathetic; the respiration soon be 

 comes feeble and difficult; prostration supervenes and the animal appears a; 

 though paralyzed, but the irritability of the skeletal muscles and nerves ii 

 normal; the heart becomes slow, feeble and irregular; the blood-pressure fall 

 promptly 20 to 30 mm. of mercury, after which it steadily falls to a low level 

 the appetite fails, the temperature declines and death occurs in from twelvi 

 to forty-eight hours. In some instances a pigmentation of the skin simila 

 to that seen in Addison's disease has been observed. From the fact tha 

 animals so promptly die after extirpation of these bodies, and the further fac 

 that the blood of some animals is toxic to the subjects of recent extirpation 

 but not to normal animals, the conclusion was drawn that the function of th 

 adrenal bodies is to remove from the blood some toxic product of musd 

 metabolism. Its accumulation after extirpation was supposed to causi 

 death through autointoxication. This view is, however, not generall; 

 accepted. 



The Effects of the Injection of Gland Extracts. On the suppositio] 

 that the adrenals might secrete and pour into the blood a specific materia 

 that favorably influences general metabolism, Schafer and Oliver injecte( 

 hypodermatically glycerin and water extracts of the medulla into the bodie 

 of various animals and observed at once an increased rate of the heart 

 beats and of the respiratory movements. The effects however were onl 

 transitory. When these extracts were injected into the veins directly, ther 

 followed in a short time a cessation of the auricular contraction though th 

 ventricular contraction continued vigorously but with a slower rhythm 

 The blood-pressure at the same time was markedly increased. If the vag 

 were cut previous to the injection or if the inhibitor influence of the vag 

 was removed by an injection of atropin the reverse effects were produced 

 viz., an increase in the rapidity and vigor of both the auricular and ventricula 

 contraction accompanied by a still more marked rise of blood-pressure. Thi 

 latter effect is the result partly of the increased action of the heart but ver 

 largely the result of a vigorous contraction of the muscle-fibers in the walls of th 

 arterioles. This is attributed to a direct stimulation of the arterioles and no 

 to a stimulation of the vaso-constrictor center. The contraction of th 

 arterioles is quite general as shown by plethysmographic studies of the limbs 

 the spleen, kidney, etc. The arterioles of the lungs and brain do not con 

 tract under its influence to the same extent as do the arterioles in othe 

 regions of the body, possibly for the reason that the arteriole muscles ii 

 these organs are not so abundantly supplied with vaso-motor nerves as the 



