SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SUPRARENAL GLANDS 163 



compensatory hyperplasia have no sufficient foundation. Only the cortical 

 tissue can be successfully grafted. Granting that the cortex is essential to 

 life, the question may be raised whether the chromaphil tissue is not also 

 essential. Biedl asserts that because of the existence of chromaphil tissue 

 outside of the suprarenal (extracapsular chromaphil tissue), it is never 

 possible to create a physiological deficiency of epinephrin by removal of the 

 suprarenals. Zuckerkandl ( found constantly in the human embryo and 

 new-born child a pair of chromaphil bodies in the retroperitoneal space at 

 the origin of the inferior mesenteric artery. Kohn(&) described in the dog 

 and other animals a considerable strip of chromaphil tissue, which Vincent, 

 (d, g) who extended Kohn's work, designates as the "abdominal chromaphil 

 body." It was shown by Biedl and Wiesel that extracts of Zuckerkandl's 

 bodies, and by Vincent that extracts of the chromaphil bodies of the dog 

 cause the same effect upon the blood-pressure as extracts of the suprarenal 

 medulla. Fulk and Macleod confirmed the existence of epinephrin in 

 the retroperitoneal chromaphil tissue in a large number of animals and in 

 man by the action of extracts upon rabbit intestine and uterus segments. 

 Other considerable groups of chromaphil cells exist, such as those in the 

 carotid body, and there are scattered chromaphil cells in the sympathetic 

 ganglia, although in the higher mammals these are not numerous. J. F. 

 Gaskell (a) (1912-13) has brought forward some evidence that the chrome- 

 .staining tissue at the bottom of the vertebrate scale, in Petromyzon, also 

 contains epinephrin. Recently he has extended his studies to inverte- 

 brates (6) (1919), and states that the chromaphil cells in the ganglia of the 

 leech contain epinephrin. It is, of course, extraordinarily difficult to obtain 

 sufficient material for a satisfactory test, but in the one experiment made, 

 an extract of 400 leech ganglia gave some inhibition of the cat's virgin 

 uterus. 



It may be concluded with some confidence that the extracapsular 

 chromaphil tissue contains epinephrin. But it must not be assumed with- 

 out proof that this is given off to the blood. The denervated suprarenal 

 contains epinephrin and speedily accumulates a full load, but if section 

 of the epinephrin-secretory fibers is complete, it does not pass into the 

 circulation. Everything depends, therefore, upon the innervation of the 

 extracapsular chromaphil cells. It seems probable that if they do lib- 

 erate epinephrin, this liberation is controlled by nerves, and Kahn(e) 

 (1912) states that by means of the frog perfusion method he has shown 

 that epinephrin is given off to the blood by the abdominal chromaphil 

 body of the dog. The experiment, however, is very difficult to carry out 

 without fault. Most of his curves do not show any very great difference 

 between serum from the caval blood and serum from the abdominal 

 ganglion (chromaphil body), although one or two do. The possibility of 

 massage is perhaps not excluded. Kahn makes an interesting calculation 

 as to the relative content of epinephrin in the abdominal chromaphil body 



