The General Pharmacology and 

 Toxicology of the Suprarenal 



Glands 



FKANK A. IIARTMAN 



BUFFALO 



The isolation of epinephrin paved the way for a tremendous amount 

 of research in physiology and pharmacology. Although much had been 

 done in the study of suprarenal extracts, the work was necessarily more 

 or less inaccurate because of the impossibility of measuring dosage. The 

 study of epinephrin effects has outstripped that of any other hormone. 

 To what precise extent these effects are physiological is at present a mooted 

 question as we are not sure of the amounts of epinephrin which are re- 

 leased under physiological conditions. Therefore this must be carefully 

 kept in mind in any description of epinephrin effects. 



This hormone affects smooth muscle particularly but it does so through 

 the sympathetic system as shown by Elliott (5) who, after a very compre- 

 hensive study came to the conclusion that the reaction elicited was similar 

 to that resulting from sympathetic nerve stimulation, the extent of the 

 reaction depending upon the frequency of normal impulses passing through 

 the sympathetic nerves to the muscle in life. A review of the effects of 

 epinephrin upon smooth muscle as well as other tissues of the body follows. 



Response of the Pupil to Epinephrin. Although the intravenous in- 

 jection of epinephrin may cause elevation of the lid, retraction of the nic- 

 titating membrane and dilatation of the pupil, to a certain extent normally, 

 the effects are much more pronounced after degeneration of the post- 

 ganglionic fibers due to extirpation of the superior cervical ganglion. 

 Moreover, the application of epinephrin to the conjunctiva has no effect 

 upon the pupil (Lewandowsky(a) (b) ) until after extirpation of the su- 

 perior cervical ganglion when marked dilatation may result. 



Ehrmann (a) (c) has employed the enucleated frog's eye immersed in 

 isotonic NaCI solution as a test for epinephrin, this being sensitive to dilu- 

 tions of 1 :20 million. At one time this method served as a quantitative test 

 for epinephrin in various animal fluids, but now it is known that many 

 other substances give a similar reaction. Some, of these are tyrosin (Pick 



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