

THE ADRENAL BODIES 135 



According to the latter view, the pathology of Addison's disease 

 is to be explained on the basis of adrenal inadequacy i.e., 

 an interference with the normal internal secretion of the gland. 

 According to the former, the symptoms of Addison's disease 

 are due to the accumulation of poisonous products (e.g., of 

 muscular activity), to remove which it is the duty of the adrenal 

 body. It seems clear that the gland does not effect this 

 removal after the manner of an excretory organ, but there is 

 nothing to prevent our supporting the hypothesis that the 

 secretion of the gland has for its function, or one of its functions, 

 the neutralization of some of the poisonous products of meta- 

 bolism. 



If we admit that one of the functions of the secretion of 

 the gland is to maintain the tone of muscular structures 

 generally, then we have at once an explanation of the extra- 

 ordinary muscular prostration in Addison's disease. But the 

 effects of adrenin, the secretion of the chromaphil medulla, 

 are practically confined to the muscular structures under the 

 control of the sympathetic nervous system. It may be that 

 the muscular weakness is to be explained on the hypothesis 

 that the adrenals in some way neutralize the poisonous products 

 of muscular activity. 



But how are we to explain the pigmentation, the bronzing 

 of the skin, which is, after all, the most striking of all the 

 symptoms of Addison's disease ? Is this symptom related 

 to the colour reactions given by the chromaphil cells of the 

 medulla, and extracts made from them, or is it related to a 

 destruction of red blood-corpuscles which is stated to occur 

 in the central portion of the cortex, or is it due to deficiency 

 in some other function of cortex or medulla ? 



It seems difficult or impossible to induce pigmentation by 

 experiments upon animals (see, however, pp. 141 and 142). 



The pigment is disposed for the most part in places which 

 are exposed to thermal, chemical, and luminous stimuli. From 

 a teleological standpoint the pigmentation might be regarded 

 as a protective arrangement against luminous stimuli. Accord- 

 ing to Bab (in discussing melano-sarcoma of the ovary), pigment 

 raises the power of resistance of tissues and organs, and is 

 therefore found in the locus minor is resistentice. In this view 

 the pigment is a general means of protection against injury. 

 Eiselt comments that this can scarcely hold as a general theory, 



