9 o THE CHEMISTRY OF THE TISSUES AND ORGANS. 



This discovery of a compound containing iodine in the animal body 

 is a very remarkable one, but is not unique. Almost simultaneously with 

 Baumann's announcement, Drechsel l published a research on the horny 

 skeleton of Gorgonia cavolinii. Here he found iodine in organic com- 

 bination, and on decomposition the skeleton yielded a crystalline amido- 

 acid (iodo-gorgonic acid) of uncertain constitution, and with the formula 

 C^gNIO^. Drechsel has also found iodine in the hair of a syphilitic 

 patient, taking iodide of potassium. With reference to the thyroid, lie 

 suggests the very reasonable hypothesis that this organ produces more 

 than one active substance, and that the different substances have 

 different actions. He has confirmed the existence both of Baumann's 

 iodo-thyrin and of Frankel's thyreo-antitoxin, and has further separ- 

 ated out a second crystalline base. Hutchison, 2 however, finds that 

 the proteid-free extracts which contain these bases are physiologically 

 inactive. He finds that the activity is connected with the iodine-con- 

 taining colloid substance. He distinguishes between the colloid of the 

 acini and the nucleo-proteid of the epithelium lining them. The former 

 is the active constituent, and is by gastric digestion decomposed into 

 two parts. One part is proteid ; it contains a little iodine, and has 

 feeble physiological powers. The other part is not proteid, and not 

 nuclein. It is more active, and contains the greater part of the iodine 

 and all the phosphorus of the original colloid. 



The suprarenal body. In this gland, in addition to proteids and 

 the usual extractives and salts (among which potassium phosphate is 

 the most abundant), various other substances have been described, such 

 as hippuric and taurocholic acid, 3 benzoic acid, taurine, 4 and inosite. 5 



The chemistry of the suprarenal is of especial interest because of the 

 work of Schafer and Oliver 6 on the action of extracts obtained from 

 it. It is now generally believed that the function of the gland is 

 secretory, and that the fatal effects of its removal in animals, or 

 disease in man ( A< Id i son's disease), is due to the removal of an internal 

 secretion, and not to auto-intoxication from the non-removal of waste 

 products. 7 The active principle is obtained from extracts of the 

 medulla of the healthy gland ; it is absent in advanced cases of Addi- 

 son's disease. 



The earlier observers 8 were inclined to attribute the toxic 

 results of suprarenal injections to neurine. This is not so. Neurine 



1 Ztschr. f. Biol., Miinchen, 1896, Bd. xxxiii. S. 83; CentrcdU. f. Physiol., Leipzig, 

 Bd. ix. S. 704. 



2 Brit. Med. Journ., London, 1896, vol. i. p. 722; 1897, vol. i. p. 4; Journ. Physiol., 

 Cambridge and London, 1896, vol. xx. p. 474. 



3 Cloez and Vulpian, Compt. rend. Acad. d. sc., Paris, 1857, tome ii. p. 10 ; Gaz. med. 

 de Paris, 1858, No. 24. 



4 Seligsohn, Diss. , Berlin, 1858; Holm, Journ. f. prakt. Chem., Leipzig, Bd. c. S. 150. 

 Stadelmann could not confirm these statements, Ztschr. f. physiol. Chcm., Strassburg, Bd. 

 xviii. Possibly these substances are absorbed from the neighbouring gall bladder and 

 kidney. 



5 Klilz, Sitzungsb. d. Gesellsch. z. Befdrd. d. ges. Naturw. zu Marburg, 1876, No. 4. 



6 Journ. Physiol., Cambridge and London, 1895, vol. xviii. p. 230. Some speculations 

 as to the function of the cortex by Auld will be found, Brit. Med. Journ., London, July 

 4, 1896 ; Manasse, Virclww's Archiv, Bd. cxxxv. S. 263. 



7 The discovery of ruemochromogen in the medulla of the organ by MacMunn (Proc. Roy. 

 Soc. London, Bd/xxxix. S. 248) appeared to favour the removal hypothesis. 



8 Pellacani, Arch, per le sc. vied., Torino, 1874, vol. iii. ; Foa, ibid., 1884, vol. viii. ; 

 Marino-Zucco, Chem. Centr.-BL, Leipzig, 1888; Untersuch. s. Naturl. d. Mensch. u. d. 

 Thier, Bd. xiv. ; Arch. ital. de biol., Turin, vol. x. 



