76 



THE SEX-COMPLEX 



Author's 

 experiments. 



48 hours of the complete extirpation. I tried, therefore, 

 the effect of the removal of one suprarenal in the hope of 

 being able to produce insufficiency, since it is known the 

 other suprarenal hypertrophies in these circumstances, 

 and shows a condition somewhat comparable with the 

 hyperplasia of pregnancy. Two cats gave negative 

 results in regard to the metabolism, but with two rabbits 

 certain results were obtained. One of the animals was 

 destroyed at the end of 30 days, as it was obviously 

 dying. It was much emaciated, its weight having 

 dropped from 2000 grammes to 1400 grammes. The 

 post-mortem notes run as follows : " No cause of death 

 found. The site of the previous operation unrecognisable 

 except for the absence of the gland ". The other rabbit 

 died at the end of 127 days. It, also, was greatly 

 emaciated, the weight having decreased from 1710 

 grammes to 1020 grammes. At first the animal gained 

 weight after the operation, and then steadily lost ground. 

 No cause for death was found, other than the absence 

 of one suprarenal. 



These results are apparently of some value, for 

 according to most recent writers, unilateral extirpation 

 in rabbits produces no symptoms. 



Effects of 

 removal of 

 one supra- 

 renal. 



EFFECTS OF REMOVAL OF ONE SUPRARENAL ON THE 

 METABOLISM 



With regard to the metabolism I obtained very 

 interesting records from these cases of chronic insuffici- 

 ency. In both cases a considerable increase in the 

 urinary excretion of calcium was observed (table VI) : in 

 one the average quantity excreted after operation was 

 seven times as much as that excreted before operation ; in 

 the other case it was more than sixteen times as much. 

 The average for the two cases was, of course, between 

 these figures (table VII). The excretion of phosphorus, 

 also, was much greater ; and the urea excretion was 

 increased out of proportion to the differences between 

 the specific gravities before and after operation. 



