948 INFLUENCE OF DUCTLESS GLANDS ON METABOLISM. 



We may assume, then, that the pituitary body furnishes to the 

 blood an internal secretion, and that this internal secretion tends to 

 increase the contraction of the heart and arteries, and perhaps influences 

 the nutrition of some of the tissues, especially bone and the tissues of 

 the nervous system. 1 



THE SUPRARENAL BODIES. 



Effects of disease and ablation. The immense importance of these 

 glands in nutrition was indicated by Addison, 2 who, in 1855, pointed out 

 that the symptoms of the disease now known by his name, the most 

 prominent of which are extreme asthenia, and the appearance of bronze 

 patches upon the skin and on some of the mucous membranes, are 

 associated with pathological alterations of the suprarenal capsules. 

 This observation was tested experimentally by Brown-Sequard, 3 who 

 found (in 1856) that removal of the suprarenal bodies was rapidly and 

 unfailingly fatal in all animals (usually within twelve hours). Removal 

 of one capsule produces no obvious effect, but when the second is re- 

 moved, even after a long interval of time, the usual symptoms caused by 

 total ablation at once supervene. The symptoms following the removal 

 are practically those of Addison's disease, although much more acute. 

 There is extreme muscular weakness, and great loss of tone of the 

 vascular system, with loss of appetite, and other signs of general pro- 

 stration. Death appears to result from paralysis of the respiratory 

 muscles. But the pigmentation which usually accompanies disease of 

 the capsules was not noticed by Brown-Sequard, and he inferred that this 

 absence of pigmentation was probably due to the fact that a fatal result 

 appears so rapidly after the complete removal of the capsules in animals, 

 that time is not afforded for the development of this symptom. This 

 conjecture appears to have been confirmed by an experiment of 

 Nothnagel, 4 who found pigmented patches to appear after crushing the 

 capsules, and also by F. and S. Marino-Zucco, 5 who state that by inocu- 

 lating the suprarenals of rabbits with pseudo-tubercle bacillus they 

 have succeeded in obtaining, not only the slow development of the 

 ordinary symptoms of suprarenal removal, but also an augmentation 

 in the pigmentation of the skin and hair. Tizzoni also has obtained 

 skin-pigmentation after complete and partial removal of the capsules in 

 rabbits, which lived a certain time after the operation. 



It is needless to state that Brown-Sequard's results, following as 

 they did upon Addison's observations, attracted much attention, and 

 numerous investigators set to work to verify them. But many of these 6 

 failed to confirm the results which were obtained by Brown-Sequard, 

 probably by reason of the removal being incomplete, or of the existence 



1 The thromboses which Mairet and Bosc (Arch, dephysioL norm, et path., Paris, 1896, 

 p. 600) obtained from intravenous injection of glycerin- and water-extracts of pituitary 

 into rabbits, were doubtless caused by nucleo-proteids. Subcutaneous injection produced 

 slight rise of temperature with lassitude und gastric troubles, but as it does not appear 

 that the material used was aseptic, these observations are of little value. 



- "On the Constitutional and Local Effects of Disease of the Suprarenal Capsules," 

 London, 1855. 



3 Compt. rend. Acad. d. sc., Paris, 1856, pp. 422 and 542 ; Arch. gen. de m^d., Paris, 

 1856 ; Journ. de la physiol. de I'homme, Paris, 1858, tome i. p. 160. 



4 Ztschr.f. Iclin. Med., Berlin, 1879, Bd. i. S. 77. 



5 Riforma med., Eoma, 1892, tome i. 



6 Philippeaux, Compt. rend. Acad. d. sc., Paris, 1856 ; Gratiolet, ibid. ; G. Harley, Brit. 

 $nd For, Med.-Chir. Rev., London, 1858, vol. xxi. p. 204. 



