38 CORA SENNEB WINKIN 



transition of the normal curve into the abbreviated response typical 

 for animals with ligated adrenals. Such a gradual transition is also 

 found in the intact repeatedly occluded animals. In the second place, 

 from the premature failure of the vascular response, after the ligation 

 of the adrenals, particularly in contrast to the secondary rise that is 

 seen in the intact repeatedly occluded animals, the conclusion may be 

 drawn that some product of adrenal activity must be available to make 

 possible the continued action of sympathetic nerve on smooth muscle 

 for any length of time. 



Survival after adrenal ligation. In all the work reported on excision 

 of the adrenal glands, sudden death has never been noted. However, 

 when all adrenal tissue is excised, collapse and death follow, the inter- 

 val of life varying in different animals. The earlier work on cats has 

 been reviewed by Hultgren and Anderson (109), who particularly 

 described the prelethal stage. Elliott (73) recorded the failure of blood 

 pressure in addition to the loss of the pressor reaction in the moribund 

 cat, and in a later paper he has summarized a series of tests given in 

 these conditions, demonstrating a complete collapse of vascular tone. 

 Gautrelet and Thomas, (110) later Hoskins, (111) have confirmed the 

 depression of the sympathetic system on final collapse. Elliott records 

 death with simultaneous extirpation under ether after 14 to 18 hours. 

 Bazett (112) has recently succeeded in shortening this time consider- 

 ably by decerebration, urethane anesthesia and sensory stimulation. 

 In these animals the fall of blood pressure occurred within a few hours 

 after the operation. Elliott (98), moreover, finds that the animal sur- 

 vives even if the adrenal tissue is separated from the splanchnics. He 

 concludes therefore that, whereas the increase of adrenalin in the blood 

 stream under splanchnic stimulation is not necessary to life, the animal 

 depends for its existence on the continual slow secretion of adrenalin 

 from the medullary cells. Elliott argues that this continual slow 

 secretion is independent of nervous impulses. Stewart and Rogoff 

 (113), (114), however, are unable to demonstrate any appreciable 

 adrenalin output under these conditions. 



It seems that the repetition of the extreme procedure of occlusion is 

 able to hasten the onset of complete failure most surprisingly. In the 

 extreme conditions of these experiments Bazett's (97) already curtailed 

 time of survival after ligation of the adrenals is thus further shortened 

 by 6 or 8 hours. The only demonstrable factor in the failure under 

 these conditions is the inability of the sympathetic nervous mechanism 

 to maintain the normal state of the musculature of the blood vessels 



