2l6 INTERNAL SECRETION 



The following facts concerning adrenalin glycosuria may be 

 regarded as proved. The glycosuria makes its appearance after 

 the exhibition of comparatively small doses (.01 to .1 mg.) of 

 adrenalin, and is, on the whole, more readily provoked by subcu- 

 taneous or intraperitoneal, than by intravenous, injection (Lowi). 

 The cause of this remarkable phenomenon will appear later. The 

 subcutaneous introduction of i to 2 mg. adrenalin is followed 

 after half an hour, at the latest after two hours, by a glycosuria 

 lasting about three hours. The repeated injection of similar 

 doses into the same animal is not, however, followed by the 

 regular appearance of the glycosuria. One day the urine will 

 contain a large quantity of sugar, the next day perhaps none at 

 all, and in the end the glycosuria may entirely disappear. 



It has been observed by several authors that the glycosuria 

 which follows the exhibition of adrenalin is accompanied by hyper- 

 glyccemia. The increase in the amount of sugar in the blood 

 was proved by Bierry and Gatin-Gruzewska, and by Noel Paton, 

 in the case of rabbits and dogs. These authors also showed 

 that when given to starving animals, adrenalin diminished the 

 amount of glycogen present in the liver and muscular structure, 

 and may indeed be regarded as a certain method of eliminating 

 glycogen from the system. Drumont and Noel Paton were unable 

 to produce changes in the glycogen of the liver of well-fed rabb'its 

 by means of small doses of adrenalin, such changes being brought 

 about by doses large enough to produce acute toxic symptoms. 

 Later investigations have proved beyond any manner of doubt, 

 that the glycogen largely disappears from the liver and muscles 

 where the adrenalin action is very intense (Agadchanianz, Doyon, 

 Morel, and Kareff). L. Pollak recently pointed out that, after 

 previous feeding with glycose or levulose, the glycogen 

 stored up in the liver may be induced completely to disappear by 

 means of large doses of adrenalin. Small doses of adrenalin differ 

 considerably in their effect, according to whether the glycogen 

 accumulated in the liver is formed from glycose or levulose. 

 Levulose-glycogen is markedly the more resistant. 



Since Blum's first communication it has been definitely proved 

 that, after prolonged fasting, glycosuria is present in all animals. 

 Pollak's experiments testified to the remarkable fact, that the 

 repeated exhibition of adrenalin in fasting rabbits and in rabbits 

 which have been rendered absolutely free from glycogen by means 

 of strychnine, is followed, not only by sugar in the urine, but by 

 the accumulation of glycogen in the liver. The amount of 

 glycogen which collects in the liver is as large as that which is 

 usually seen only in animals fed with carbohydrates. It has been 

 shown (Underhill and Closson, Eppinger, Falta and Rudinger) 

 that adrenalin causes a very considerable increase in the metabol- 

 ism of albumin in starving animals, and the remarkable phenom- 

 enon described above is probably attributable to the storing-up of 



