168 G. 1ST. STEWART 



must accordingly be increased even if no change has occurred in its rate 

 of output. 



The elaborate theory of the reciprocal relations of the endocrin organs 

 originated by Eppinger, Falta and Rudinger gains no support from such 

 experimental observations as have been made either upon the epinephrin 

 store or the epinephrin output. Gley and Quinquaud(a) very naturally ex- 

 press astonishment at the ease with which these theories gained a consider- 

 able degree of acceptance without ever having been subjected to a direct 

 experimental investigation, and surmise that this was due to the fact that 

 they are supported especially by "investigations concerning the nutritive 

 exchanges." Lusk and Riche showed that not one of the statements as to 

 the supposed role of epinephrin in metabolism and its action upon the 

 endocrin organs (pancreas and thyroid) upon which the theory was based 

 is true, and conclude that the theory is not tenable in any of its particulars. 

 The subject of the reciprocal action of the endocrin tissues is dealt with 

 elsewhere in this work. But it may be pointed out here how improbable 

 it is that so many tissues and organs of such diverse structure and ancestry 

 should form an autonomous physiological system, all the members of 

 which are linked together in a specially intimate manner, merely because 

 they have been rather clumsily classified by the superficial morphological 

 character that they are of glandular nature, but do not possess ducts. 

 Even this is not a thoroughgoing distinction in the case of the thyroid. 



Nothing has been said as to the supposed "disintoxicating" function of 

 the adrenals, their power of neutralizing toxic substances produced in 

 metabolism, because nothing is known. The relative constancy of the 

 epinephrin output and its strict regulation by the nervous system are as 

 compatible with the view that epinephrin is a poison which must be grad- 

 ually got rid of, and whose concentration in the blood must not rise above 

 a certain maximum, as with the view that it is a substance exercising a 

 useful function, which could not be adequately performed if the output 

 were permitted to sink below a certain minimum. 



