THE ADRENAL BODIES Hi 



These views of Brown-Sequard were vigorously combated by 

 many workers. Gratiolet performed several series of operations 

 upon guinea-pigs, and came to the conclusion that extirpation 

 of the right adrenal was just as serious as removal of both. 

 This was soon disproved by Brown-Sequard, who succeeded in 

 keeping three guinea-pigs out of seven alive for three weeks 

 after right-sided extirpation. 



Philipeaux succeeded in keeping white mice and also a certain 

 number of rabbits alive after bilateral extirpation. He con- 

 cluded that removal of the adrenals does not necessarily lead to 

 death, and that where death ensues this is due to the operative 

 proceedings or some circumstance connected with them, such as 

 peritonitis, and that some animals can survive complete extir- 

 pation without showing any symptoms that, in fact, the 

 adrenals are no more essential to life than is the spleen. This 

 view he firmly maintained, although three of his operated 

 animals died in nine, twenty-three, and thirty -four days. 



In order to test the matter further, Brown-Sequard per- 

 formed a further series of experiments upon rabbits, and felt 

 justified in affirming that the adrenals are more essential to life 

 than are the kidneys, and thought that the survival of occasional 

 animals is due to a vicarious assumption of the adrenal function 

 by the thymus or the thyroid. 



Harley employed among other animals the white rat, and 

 found that this animal may indefinitely survive entire removal 

 of the adrenals. From this Harley, as well as Philipeaux and 

 Gratiolet, ascribed the fatal results in other animals to injury to 

 adjacent nerves and bloodvessels. 



The observations of Nothnagel deserve special mention. 

 This observer, from clinical observations, thought that a 

 chronic inflammation of the adrenals would be more likely to 

 induce symptoms resembling those of Addison's disease than 

 removal of the glands. Accordingly he resorted to the method 

 of crushing the bodies. He operated upon 153 rabbits, and 

 found that if the operation were performed upon the two sides 

 with an interval of three or four weeks between, then the 

 animals survived and showed no serious symptoms. Among 

 the 153 bilaterally operated rabbits, Nothnagel observed in 

 three cases pigment spots on the mucous membrane of the 

 mouth. These were noticeable one, three, and five months 

 after the second operation. The author did not, however, 



