THE ADRENAL BODIES 219 



dilution of 1 : 1,000 to normal rabbits is far more efficacious in 

 causing glycosuria than the same quantity of adrenin intro- 

 duced intravenously in much greater dilution. The same 

 quantity of adrenin injected subcutaneously at different 

 periods into the same animal under constant conditions 

 causes the appearance in the urine of variable quantities of 

 sugar. 



Underbill and Fine have discovered that subcutaneous 

 administration of hydrazine is capable of preventing the 

 appearance of sugar in the urine of dogs from which the 

 pancreas has been removed. They suggest that hydrazine has 

 an action upon sugar metabolism entirely similar to that exerted 

 by the internal secretion of the pancreas. According to this 

 idea, injections of hydrazine cause hypoglycsemia by increasing 

 the efficiency of the pancreatic secretion or by augmenting its 

 output. They find definitely that the secretion of adrenin is 

 not notably inhibited by hydrazine. 



As a working hypothesis, the authors make use of the scheme 

 of interaction between the pancreas and the adrenal bodies 

 given on page 220. 



Ringer has brought forward some results which indicate that 

 adrenalin, by its constricting effect on the bloodvessels, produces 

 anaemia of the tissues, resulting in imperfect oxidation, and this 

 anaemia is followed by the conversion of glycogen into dextrose, 

 by hyperglycaemia, and consequently by glycosuria. 



In 1891 Jacobi described nerves branching from the splanch- 

 nics, and supplying the adrenal bodies. The same observer, 

 in his experiments on the nervous functions of the adrenals, 

 without, of course, having any knowledge of the pressor effects 

 of extracts, reports that in two experiments stimulation of the 

 gland itself produced a rise of blood-pressure. But Apolant, 

 in a series of more than thirty experiments upon rabbits, could 

 obtain no such result. Biedl found that stimulation of the 

 splanchnics or the ramus suprarenalis gives rise to vasodilation, 

 and suggested that this is accompanied by increased secretion 

 from the gland. We must consider, however, the result open 

 to question, as no test of the active principle was made, but 

 only a study of changes in certain granules in the blood of the 

 adrenal vein (vide infra). 



More definite results were obtained by Dreyer, who records 

 that the physiological action of the blood from the adrenal vein 



