A76 On the Action of Kxtract of Adrenal Cortez. 
In the fold of the thigh there was, in the fat, a knot as large as a small 
haricot, which in section presented an opaque yellow centre and a translucent 
capsule. 
A healthy mallard received into each pectoral muscle 1 cc. of a salt - 
extract of the cortex of a sheep’s adrenals, the cortex used being carefully 
isolated from the medulla and twice washed in boiled salt solution. 
The bird was killed nine days later. In each pectoral there was an 
encapsulated mass of dry necrotic muscle rather more than 1 cm. in length. 
In microscopic sections the dead tissue presents the typical appearance 
of a coagulation necrosis, the muscle fibres being hyaline and structureless. 
The sequestrum is closely surrounded by a zone of multinucleated giant 
cells, and beyond this there is newly-forming connective tissue consisting 
of elongated fibroblasts and intervening fibres, the latter being arranged in 
correspondence with the form of the necrosed focus. 
A salt extract of the medulla of the sheep’s adrenal likewise produces 
a local necrosis, on intramuscular injection. 
A healthy mallard received into the pectoral muscle 0°5 c.c. of a salt 
extract of sheep’s medulla. It was killed on the tenth day. In the 
substance of the muscle there was a dry firm sequestrum of muscular tissue 
surrounded by a fibrous capsule. 
That the necrosis of the muscle, so resulting from the injection of 
medullary extract, need not be explained by a local spasm of the arterioles 
at the site of experiment appears from the fact that the cortical extract 
produces the same result. Cortical extract, as is well known from the 
original work of Oliver and Schifer, has no immediate physiological effect 
upon the vascular system. 
The necrosis must.in both cases be attributed to the direct action of 
a toxic substance extracted from the cortex and from the medulla. 
When similar injections of salt solution extract, whether of the cortex or 
of the medulla, are made into the tissues of the guinea-pig, oedema or 
suppuration not infrequently, though not invariably, follow. After injection 
of medullary extract we have seen extensive cavities containing serous or 
blood-stained fluid form amongst the muscles. 
This result has been described also by Elliott and Tuckett* as following 
the introduction of pieces of sheep’s adrenal, whether medulla or cortex, into 
the subcutaneous tissue of the same animal, viz., the guinea-pig. 
These observers found that no such local results ensued if other animals 
than guinea-pigs were used to receive the grafts, and this, whether the 
adrenals grafted were taken from rats, guinea-pigs, or rabbits. 
* “Journal of Physiology,’ vol. 34, August, 1906. 
