2l8 INTERNAL SECRETION 



intimate connection between the glycosuria and the amount of 

 glycogen present in the economy. In animals which have a large 

 amount of glycogen in their economy, half the usual dose of 

 adrenalin will produce an excretion of sugar quantitatively equal 

 to that provoked in normal animals by the full dose. Where, 

 however, the animal economy is poor in glycogen, similar results 

 will be obtained only by the agency of much larger quantities of 

 adrenalin. 



According to Ritzmann, where experiments are undertaken 

 with the object of studying the physiological processes by which 

 adrenalin glycosuria takes place, it is essential that the adrenalin 

 should be introduced directly into the blood stream ; for the 

 method of introducing it into the economy by a single subcu- 

 taneous injection does not reproduce the natural conditions. It 

 has, moreover, been proved that, where adrenalin -is injected 

 subcutaneously, the quantity required to produce certain glyco- 

 suric effects is considerably larger than in cases where the 

 substance is introduced by continuous intravenous transfusion. 

 For example, in one case, a subcutaneous injection of 2 mg. 

 adrenalin was required to produce 0.64 grm. sugar in the 

 urine, while the same result was obtained by means of intravenous 

 transfusion with a diluted solution containing 0.4 mg. adrenalin. 

 Thus of the 2 mg. which were injected subcutaneously, 1.6 mg. 

 or 80 per cent, were destroyed without producing glycosuria. 



It is evident from Pollak's experiments described above, that 

 the glycosuria produced by the intravenous exhibition of adrenalin 

 is dependent upon the diuresis. And Ritzmann mentions that, in 

 several of his experiments, the diuresis entirely ceased, and the 

 animals died without excreting any part of the fluid which had 

 been introduced into their economy. Even where adrenalin is 

 introduced continuously into the blood stream, a velocity which 

 is at first active becomes inactive after a time (this effect being 

 the reverse of that demonstrated by Kretschmer in the case of the 

 blood-vessels), and the glycosuria is restored only by increasing 

 the concentration of the solution. This phenomenon is explained 

 by a transitory exhaustion, either of the sugar supply or of the 

 ultimate products of the sugar. 



From the results of these investigations into the mechanism 

 of adrenalin glycosuria, it seems highly improbable that adrenalin 

 directly affects the formation of sugar in the urine. It is far more 

 likely that it influences the process of the distribution of sugar 

 in the blood. We know that, in its influence upon the 

 blood-vessels, the effect of adrenalin is equal to that of 

 stimulation of the sympathetic; and it is also well known 

 that the diabetes produced by Claude Bernard's puncture is the 

 outcome of hyperirritation of the sympathetic. The analogy 

 between the mechanism of the glycosuric and the vaso-constrictor 

 effects of this substance, suggests the hypothesis that the actual 





