1 76 INTERNAL SECRETION 



By treating watery glycerine extracts of the suprarenals of 

 cattle, sheep and calves with strong alcohol, Gourfein obtained 

 a precipitate which was insoluble in alcohol and which, when 

 dissolved in water, was less toxic in its action. The substance 

 which remained dissolved in the alcohol and which resisted heat, 

 produced progressive difficult respiration and weakness of the 

 heart-beats, but it did not produce paralysis. The autopsy showed 

 that the lungs were severely congested. 



According to Wybauw, the extract of the suprarenal of 

 guinea-pigs is less toxic than suprarenal extracts derived from 

 other animals. 



Very complete experiments are described by S. Vincent. The 

 extract which he employed was mostly derived from sheep, though 

 occasionally from oxen, dogs, cats and guinea-pigs, and was 

 obtained by the agency of saline solution both with and without 

 boiling. He found that the subcutaneous injection of this extract, 

 if given in sufficiently large doses (equivalent to 0.5 to 0.6 grm. 

 of the fresh organ) produced more or less pronounced muscular 

 weakness, occasional paresis with ultimate paralysis of the ex- 

 tremities, accelerated and shallow, followed by deep and slow 

 respiration, occasional dyspnoeic convulsions, and a fall in tem- 

 perature ending in death, in all the animals experimented upon 

 (frogs, toads, rats, mice, rabbits, guinea-pigs). Hasmaturia and 

 bleeding from the nose and mouth are not infrequently seen in 

 rats and guinea-pigs. The injection of small doses of the extract 

 is followed by a partial immunity lasting several weeks. Thirst 

 is the first noticeable symptom in dogs, which drink water greedily 

 and afterwards excrete a great profusion of urine. After a short 

 stage of excitement accompanied by increased muscular activity 

 and tremor, these dogs develop paresis and finally paralysis. 

 The most noticeable symptom in cats is the quickened respiration, 

 the paralysis being less marked. Late effects, those which only 

 make their appearance after hours or even days, have never been 

 observed. The administration of the extract in sufficiently large 

 doses is invariably followed by symptoms within a few minutes. 

 According to Vincent, the symptoms take their rise in the central 

 nervous system, and are the outcome of the activity of the medulla, 

 no toxic substance being present in the cortex. 



Vincent also tested the physiological effects of separate ex- 

 tracts derived from the interrenal and the adrenal tissues of fish. 

 He found that the Stannius's body of Gadus morrhua, composed 

 exclusively of interrenal tissue, and the interrenal body of Selachii 

 produced no effect when exhibited in mice, while the extract of the 

 suprarenal body of Scyllium canicula and Raia clavata, when in- 

 jected under the skin of mice, produced quickened respiration, 

 reduction in temperature, and convulsions terminating fatally 

 within, at most, five minutes. The toxicity of the extract of 

 the suprarenal bodies of Selachii, when injected into the veins of 

 dogs and rabbits, is confirmed by Biedl and Wiesel. 



