THE ADRENAL BODIES 



117 



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/ 



the adrenal medulla. The resemblance between the chrcma- 

 phil corpuscles of the sympathetic and the medulla of the 

 adrenal is rendered all the greater by the occurrence in the 

 latter of occasional nerve cells. Stilling found these corpuscles 

 in the rabbit, the cat, and the dog, and especially in young 

 animals. He gives details of a method for displaying them. 

 This extracapsular chromaphil material is still very 

 imperfectly understood by many writers on the physiology 

 and pathology of the adrenals. Thus Rolleston refers to 

 Zuckerkaridl's " parasomata " 

 the carotid body, the coccygeal, 

 and " some cells in the pitui- 

 tary." Now, the coccygeal body 

 does not contain chromaphil 

 cells, nor the pituitary, so far as 

 I am aware. But the writer 

 omits all reference to a very strik- 

 ing mass of chromaphil tissue 

 (the paraganglion aorticum of 

 Kohn) the abdominal chroma- 

 phil body which is present in 

 the ordinary laboratory animals. 1 

 This important body can readily 

 be displayed in the dog, for / \\\" 



example, by removing the liver 

 and alimentary tract from the 

 abdomen, and placing a piece of 

 absorbent cotton soaked in a 

 solution of potassium bichromate 

 (3 to 5 per cent.) over the 

 retroperitoneal tissues for six to 



twelve hours. On removing the whole of the remaining 

 tissues and washing in running water for a few hours, the 

 chromaphil bodies are plainly visible, and still more plainly 

 if the whole preparation be placed in glycerin. The 

 " abdominal chromaphil body " is revealed by this method as 

 a very dark brown wavy streak of irregular diameter, placed 



1 It seems possible that the "abdominal chromaphil body" of the dog 

 may correspond to the " Nebenorgan " of Zuckerkandl. But the general 

 shape and appearance of the two bodies are quite different, and Zuckerkandl's 

 body was found only in very young subjects. ] 





FIG. r 30. Abdominal chroma- 

 phil body of an adult dog. 



Lettering common to Figs. 30, 

 31, and 32. A., aorta; Ad., 

 adrenal ; C., abdominal chro- 

 maphil" body ; c., smaller 

 chromaphil bodies. 



