EMERGENCY FUNCTION OF SUPRARENAL MEDULLA 173 



cava anterior to the entrance of the lumbo-suprarenal veins. A thread tied 

 tightly around the catheter marked the point to which it was inserted 

 and permitted reinsertion to the same point in subsequent sampling of the 

 blood. The position of the catheter opening, which was at one side, was 

 kept constant by attention to the position of the knot in the thread. Thus 

 both the control blood and the blood after stimulation were taken as ex- 

 actly as possible from the same region. Under these circumstances normal 

 blood removed before stimulation of the central end of the sciatic nerve 

 caused no inhibition of the rhythmically contracting intestinal segment, 

 whereas that removed afterwards produced a marked relaxation. After 

 various control observations the conclusion was drawn that the suprarenal 

 glands are affected through nervous channels when a, sensory trunk is 

 strongly excited and that they then pour into the blood stream their secre- 

 tion. 



The foregoing conclusion was supported a year later by Anrep(&), who 

 found that the denervated limb or kidney at first expands but later quickly 

 contracts when the central end of the cut sciatic nerve is stimulated. If 

 the suprarenal glands were removed, or the splanchnic nerves were cut, the 

 the phase of contraction disappeared. Since the organs (limb or kidney) 

 were denervated, the only factor which could cause their contraction in 

 the presence of a rise of general blood pressure must be some agency 

 brought by the blood stream; and since the phenomenon disappeared on 

 elusion of the suprarenals, the conclusion was drawn that suprarenal 

 ?retion, poured out in consequence of reflex stimulation through the 

 splanchnics, produced the observed vasoconstriction. The observations 

 of Anrep on the denervated limb have recently been confirmed by Pearl- 

 man and Vincent. 



The year following Anrep's studies Levy reported the incidental ob- 

 jrvation that after both stellate ganglia, had been removed and both 

 ragus nerves cut, stimulation of the sciatic nerve occasioned irregularity 

 of the heart. He also noted that excitation of the peripheral end of 

 the cut splanchnic would cause the same cardiac changes, and that they 

 did not occur if the suprarenal gland was removed on the stimulated side. 

 He therefore concluded that on sciatic stimulation the denervated heart 

 ras being affected by epinephrin discharged reflexly. 



In 1917, Florovsky undertook an investigation of a strange fact previ- 

 rnsly observed by Ostrogorsky, which was that if the cervical sympathetic 

 md the chorda tympani nerves are severed, and the secretory effect of 

 a dose of pilocarpin is disappearing, sciatic stimulation causes a consid- 

 erable increase in the flow of saliva. The effect was so striking that he 

 looked for a third nerve to the submaxillary gland but could not find 

 it. Under the conditions described by Ostrogorsky, Florovsky succeeded 

 in producing augmented salivary secretion by stimulating the peripheral 

 end of the cut splanchnic and by intravenous injection of epinephrin. 



