THE SUPRARENAL BODY. 



can be obtained from the gland, it is true, but the symptoms 

 of neurine poisoning are different. 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 first 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 : 



S. Frankel 4 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- 

 teid s 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. ]t. i) ; ibid., March 1895 (Journ. Physiol., Cambridge and London, vol. xvii. p. 

 ix.) ; Journ. PhysioL, Cambridge and London, vol. xvii. p. 230. 



2 Compt. rend. Acad. d. sc., Paris, tomes xliii. and xlv. 



3 Ztschr.f. physiol. Chem., Strassburg, 1895, Bd. xx. S. 478. 



4 Wien. mcd. Bl., 1896, Nos. 14, 15, and 16. 



5 " Proc. Physiol. Soc.," London, 1895, Journ. Physiol., Cambridge and London, vol. xvii. 

 (i Journ. Physiol., Cambridge and London, 1897, vol. xxi. p. 382. 



