PHYSIOLOGY AND EXPERIMENTAL PATHOLOGY 107 



tary muscles by stimulation from an induction coil. Normal animals re- 

 covered while decapsulated animals died. The symptoms preceding death 

 were similar to those present in decapsulated animals which were allowed 

 to die without stimulation, stimulation merely hastening their appearance. 



In the case of rabbits each animal served as its own control. The 

 strength and duration of the stimulation necessary to produce fatigue 

 were determined the day before decapsulation. Four or five hours after 

 the decapsulation, the animal was stimulated in a similar manner a few 

 minutes at a time. He recovered from the fatigue much more slowly 

 after each trial. Although immediately following decapsulation the ani- 

 mal appeared quite normal, after fatigue from the stimulation prostration 

 soon occurred, the temperature fell, respiration became superficial and 

 finally convulsions resulted followed by death. Here again stimulation 

 hastened the onset of the characteristic symptoms which develop in de- 

 capsulated animals. On the other hand rabbits which had gone through 

 similar operations except that the suprarenals were left intact, recovered 

 from the fatigue as did normal animals. These results led Albanese to 

 believe that the suprarenals are essential for the removal of the toxic prod- 

 ucts of fatigue. 



Possible Accumulation of Tpxins in the Body. If removal of toxic 

 substances from the blood is a function of the suprarenals it should be pos- 

 sible to find such substances in the circulating blood of the decapsulated 

 animals. 



Abelous and Langlois(a) (&) injected blood from a frog which had just 

 died from decapsulation into a normal frog. Breathing became slower and 

 the muscles weakened but after several minutes the animal recovered. 

 A similar injection into a frog decapsulated one hour previously caused 

 complete paralysis in twenty minutes, while blood of a freshly decapsulated 

 frog was without result. The same observers (c) later reported that the 

 blood of guinea-pigs dying after suprarenal extirpation was fatal to frogs. 



Injection of an alcoholic extract of the muscle of frogs (/) which had 

 died of capsulectomy produced immediately the grave symptoms of supra- 

 renal insufficiency in decapsulated frogs. Extracts of tetanized muscle 

 which had been deprived of its circulation produced like effects upon in- 

 jection into decapsulated frogs. If the decapsulation had not been com- 

 plete the effects were not so severe. 



The work of Levin suggests that abnormal substances are formed or 

 collect in the blood. He performed some experiments in which the blood 

 taken from decapsulated cats or dogs five hours after the operation was 

 injected into normal animals of the same species. He obtained a rise in 

 blood pressure which was sometimes preceded by a slight fall. He ob- 

 tained no effect from the injection of the blood from normal animals sirn- 

 ilary prepared. The difference in the reaction was attributed to some 

 substance contained in the blood of decapsulated animals but absent in nor- 



