94 THE DUCTLESS GLANDS 



is given by Eustachius in 1563. For a long time the discovery 

 was unnoticed, or the existence of the new organ was denied ! 

 It is indeed remarkable, as pointed out by Biedl, that Vesalius 

 in 1642, Fallopius in 1606, and Fabricius in 1738 make no refer- 

 ence to the bodies discovered by Eustachius. However, they 

 began to be referred to even before the end of the sixteenth 

 century in the medical books as the " glandulse " or the " cap- 

 sulae renales Eustachii." 



The story of Montesquieu's participation in the history of 

 our subject is so interesting that, although it has now been told 

 several times, it will well bear repeating. 



In the year 1716 the Academy of Sciences of Bordeaux 

 offered as the subject of a prize essay, " What is the Use of 

 the Suprarenal Glands ? " The essays submitted were placed 

 in the hands of Montesquieu, the famous author of the Esprit 

 des Lois, who acted as j udge . His report is of especial interest, 

 not only because of the personal fame of the author, but because 

 it gives an admirable critical account of the older views upon 

 the adrenal bodies. The style is satirical, but it is probable 

 that it was not intended to be so satirical as it appears to us at 

 this date, when every theory mentioned in 1716 appears to us 

 positively absurd. Montesquieu briefly discusses the older 

 views that the glands, serve to hold up the stomach and 

 strengthen the nervous plexus which touches them, or that 

 " black bile " is preserved within their cavity (Bartholin), or 

 that they serve to collect the humidities which leak out of the 

 great vessels in the neighbourhood. He then criticizes the 

 essays which were presented to the Bordeaux Academy. 



"We have found one author who declares that there are 

 two kinds of bile : one grosser, which is separated out in the 

 liver ; the other more subtle, secreted in the kidneys by the 

 assistance of the ferment which flows from the suprarenal 

 capsules by ducts of which we are ignorant, and of which," 

 comments Montesquieu, " we are menaced with perpetual 

 ignorance." 



" Another describes to us two small canals which carry the 

 liquids from the cavity of the capsule into the vein belonging 

 to it ; this humour, which many experiments lead us to con- 

 sider alkaline, serves to give fluidity to the blood returning 

 from the kidneys after it has been deprived of serosity in the 

 formation of the urine. 





