i INTERNAL PROTECTIVE SECRETIONS 51 



less degree upon the muscles. Albanese, independently of the 

 French investigators, confirmed their results, and brought out still 

 more clearly the influence of muscular fatigue upon duration of 

 life in decapsulated frogs. He held the toxic substances of 

 unknown nature which determined the fatal effects to be produced 

 during work by the muscles and nervous system. 



Abelous and Langlois performed a second series of experiments 

 en the guinea-pig, in which the capsules are highly developed in 

 relation to the total weight. Each capsule on an average weighs 

 12 cgrms. in guinea-pigs of 500 grms., while in rabbits of 2 kilos, 

 they only reach 10-15 cgrms., and 1 grm. in dogs. On the other 

 hand, accessory capsules are very rare in guinea-pigs, while they 

 frequently occur in rabbits and dogs. 



The effects of destroying one capsule only, of partial cauterisa- 

 tion, and of total destruction of both capsules in the guinea-pig, 

 tally with the experiments on frogs, and confirm the theory which 

 Brown-Sequard formulated in 1856, i.e. that the suprarenal capsules 

 are organs for elaborating substances destined to modify or destroy 

 the toxins of curarising action which accumulate in the body after 

 the destruction of the adrenals. 



Much work on rats, rabbits, cats, and dogs was contributed by 

 other observers. The divergence in their conclusions is evidently 

 due to the variations in operative procedure. Schiff (1863), 

 Tizzoni (1884), Russo-Giliberti and Di Mattei (1886), Alezais and 

 Arnaud (1891), Berdach and Pal (1894), Boinet (1895), sustained 

 that the ablation of both capsules in rats, rabbits, and dogs was 

 compatible with survival, but we may now assume that they only 

 partially destroyed these organs, or chanced on animals with 

 accessory suprarenals. 



The results which the brothers Marino-Zuco (1892) obtained 

 on rabbits agree perfectly with those of Abelous and Langlois on 

 guinea-pigs. Removal of both capsules was fatal after three to 

 five days, with paralytic phenomena ; removal of one capsule only 

 was compatible with survival, and no detrimental changes 

 occurred in the rabbits that were partially decapsulated on both 

 sides. But some time after partial capsular ablation, rabbits that 

 were not albinos frequently exhibited an abnormal distribution of 

 pigment in the skin or the oral or nasal rnucosa, viz. formation of 

 bronzed or grey patches in places where they had not occurred 

 previous to the operation (Nothnagel, Tizzoni, Marino-Zuco). 

 This phenomenon recalls the abnormal pigmentation of the skin in 

 Addison's disease. 



In conclusion, the long series of experiments carried out in 

 Tigerstedt's laboratory, by his pupils Hultgren and Andersson 

 (1899), generally speaking, confirm the preceding researches ; with 

 the addition of some new and interesting details : 



(a) The excision of both capsules seems always to be fatal in 



