32 CAREY P. McCORD 



Chemical Analysis of the Pineal Gland. Data for a discussion of thrs 

 topic are highly inadequate. By all odds the most complete analyses 

 available were made by Fenger' in 1916. For these analyses he collected 

 approximately 900 glands from full grown cattle during March. Then 

 during December and the following January of 1916, 1458 glands from 

 cattle, 1348 glands from sheep and 5062 glands from lambs were obtained. 

 All these glands were removed from the brains immediately after the 

 heads were opened. The trimmed and cleansed glands were weighed and 

 stored at freezing temperature until the entire lot had been collected. 

 The various lots were finely minced and desiccated in vaccuo, at a tempera- 

 ture between 35 and 37 C. After drying to constant weight, the glands 

 were coarsely ground and extracted with petroleum benzin in a Soxhlet 

 apparatus. The weight of the fresh glands, together with the loss of 

 moisture and petroleum ether soluble substances, may be found in the 

 accompanying tabulation on page 253. On the desiccated fat free mate- 

 rial, moisture, ash, phosphorous acid and total nitrogen were determined. 



When these tabulations are compared, it will be noticed that cattle 

 glands are relatively small, and that sheep and lambs contain much more 

 pineal tissue per unit of body weight than cattle. The ash and phosphorus 

 in the infant glands are somewhat less and the total nitrogen slightly higher 

 than in adult glands. Pineal glands from lambs contain less phosphorus 

 than sheep glands and these in turn less than cattle glands. All the 

 samples were tested for epinephrin and iodin with negative results. 



