616 



SPECIAL HISTOLOGY. 



Fig. 254. 



ceed independently and open into the renal and phrenic veins, and into 

 the inferior vena cava. Of lymphatics, I have as yet noticed only a 

 few small trunks on the surface of the organ, but none in the interior 

 or corning out from it. The nerves of the suprarenal glands are, as 

 was correctly stated by Bergmann, extremely numerous, arising from 

 the semilunar ganglion and the renal plexus ; according to Bergmann 

 also, to a small extent, from the vagus and phrenic nerves. In Man, 

 in the right suprarenal gland, I have counted thirty-three trunks, 8 of 

 1-5-1-10, 5 of 1-14-1-20, 7 of 1-25-1-33, and 

 13 of 1-45-1-50 of a line, and found that, with- 

 out exception, or at all events in a very prepon- 

 derating proportion, they were constituted of 

 dark-bordered, finer and medium-sized, or even 

 thick fibres ; were whitish or white and furnished 

 with isolated, larger or smaller ganglia. They 

 are especially apparent on the inferior half and 

 inner border of the organ, and appear to be all 

 destined for the medullary substance, in which, at 

 least in the Mammalia, an extremely rich plexus 

 of dark-bordered, finer fibres occurs, inclosed in 

 the trabeculce and connective tissue, their termi- 

 nations, however, being nowhere perceptible. In 

 man, the medullary substance is, in most in- 

 stances, so altered, that the nerves cannot be 

 traced farther than to their entrance into it, it be- 

 ing impossible to follow their farther distribution. 



195. Physiological remarks. The suprarenal glands are developed 

 simultaneously with the kidneys and independently of them, from a 

 blastema derived from the middle germinal lamella (Remak), the first 

 appearance and growth of which is unknown, and are originally larger 

 than the kidneys. In the third month the two organs are of equal size ; 

 in the embryo at six months, the weight of the suprarenal capsule is, to 

 that of the kidney, as 2 to 5, in the mature embryo as 1 to 3, in the 

 child at birth as 1 to 8 (Meckel). In other Mammalia the suprarenal 

 glands are, from the first, smaller than the kidneys, and increase in the 

 same proportion with them. Little is known with respect to the histo- 

 logical development of the organ. I have, hitherto, investigated this 

 only in an embryo of three months, in which, like Ecker, I found the 

 cortex whitish, the medulla whitish-red, and both constituted of cells and 

 fibres. The cells measured 0-012-0-02 of a line, had well marked in part 

 colossal nuclei, with distinct nucleoli, and in the cortical part also fatty 



FIG. 254. Transverse section of the suprarenal body of the Calf, magnified about 15 

 diameters: treated with soda: o, cortex: 6, medulla: c, central vein surrounded with some 

 cortical substance; /, three entering nerves; e. nerves, and their distribution in the interior. 



