THE SUPRARENAL BODY. 
9i 
can be obtained from the gland, it is true, but the symptoms 
of neurine poisoning are (lifiV-rciit. The active principle has not 
yet been satisfactorily identified, although its solubilities and many 
of its reactions have been worked out by Moore, 1 who at firsl thought 
it identical with a powerfully reducing substance found only in the 
medulla of the gland, and first described by Vulpian. 2 The solubilities 
of this reducing substance are nearly identical with those of the active 
physiological principle. It gives a dark green or blue colour with 
ferric chloride, passing through purple to a dark red on the addition of 
ammonia or sodium carbonate. With chlorine, bromine, or iodine water, 
peroxide of hydrogen, or alkalis in the presence of oxygen, it gives a 
rose-red colour, discharged by sulphide of hydrogen or ammonium sul- 
phide. It is insoluble in alcohol, ether, or benzene; it is soluble in 
water, alcohol plus water, and dilute acids. It dialyses freely through 
vegetable parchment. It is not a proteid, nor a carbohydrate, nor a 
fat, nor is it affected by gastric digestion. 
Manasse, 3 who investigated the composition of the organ without 
any special reference to the question of its physiological action, or the 
work of Schafer and his colleagues, states that a reducing substance 
is present, similar in many of its properties to jecorin (see p. 86). It 
is, however, not jecorin ; the two substances are alike in some of their 
Solubilities, but the material from the suprarenal does not reduce 
Fehling's solution until after prolonged boiling with sulphuric acid ; 
the sugar formed appears to be dextrose. Moore has, however, been un- 
able to obtain from the suprarenal any substance that reduces Fehling's 
solution. If one, moreover, compares the percentage composition of 
Manasse's material with jecorin, the difference is seen to be striking, as 
in the following table : — 
, Substance from 
JEC0RIN - SlPRAREXALS. 
Drechsel. 
Baldi. Manasse. 
c . 
H . 
N . 
S . 
P . 
Na 
. 
51 -32-51 -64 
8-11- 8-25 
2-86 
1-42-1-47 
2-2 -3 7 
2-72 
30-10 
46-88-46-89 
7-81- 8-09 
4-36- 4-88 
2-14- 2-70 
2-29- 2-75 
5-72 
41-43 
7-16 
0-3 
1-8 
4-44 
S. Frankel * has also made an attempt to identify the active substance, 
but with no better success than Moore: according to him, the material 
obtained by Manasse is inactive. Nabarro 5 has investigated the pro- 
teids of the organ and found them similar to those of other glandular 
structures, namely, cell globulin and nucleo-proteid. They appear to be 
physiologically inactive. In his later work Moore 6 criticises Frankel's 
1 "Proc. Physiol. Soc," London, March 1894 (Journ. Physiol., Cambridge and London, 
vol. xvi. p. i) ; ibid., March 1S95 {Journ. Physiol., Cambridge and London, vol. wii. p. 
ix. ) ; Journ. Physiol., Cambridge and London, vol. xvii. p. 230. 
- Compt. rend. Acad. d. sc, Paris, tomes xliii. and xlv. 
3 Ztschr. f. physiol. C'hem., Strassburg, 1S95. Rd. xx. S. 478. 
4 Jl'icn. irud. Bl., 1896, Nos. 14, 15, and 16. 
5 " Proc. Physiol. Soc," London, 1895, Journ. Physiol. . Cambridge and London, vol. xvii. 
6 Journ. Physiol., Cambridge and London, 1897, vol. xxi. p. 382. 
