Dietary Deficiencies on the Suprarenal Glands. 25 



in polyneuritic birds examined at a different time, makes it seem likely that, 

 whatever the exact significance of the increase may he, it is not causally 

 related to the polyneuritis which occurs in dietaries deficient in water 

 soluble B. Further evidence in this direction is furnished by the experiments 

 on feeding with casein and "marmite," and casein alone, in addition to 

 polished rice, which yielded almost identical results for the store of adrenaline 

 in two series of birds examined at the same time. 



The Incidence of (Edema in ExperiTnentcd Polyneuritis. 



In my series of experimental pigeons there were very few examples of the 

 cedema described by McCarrison. Of fifty birds with polyneuritis, only four 

 presented signs of this oedema at autopsy. The oedema occurred either as a 

 wetness of the pectoral muscles or as an effusion of fluid into the peri- 

 cardium and peritoneum. There were no instances of oedema in the lungs or 

 of the fatty band of tissue round the auriculo-ventricular junction on the 

 surface of the heart. All but one of these cedematous birds gave values for 

 the content of adrenaline which were higher than those given by birds in the 

 same series. The association of oedema with very high content of adrenaline 

 may possibly be explained by oedema of the glands themselves. It is more 

 likely, however, that the factors which operate in producing cedema in the 

 ill- nourished tissues of these birds are the same as those which give rise to 

 diminished use of adrenaline. 



McCarrison's early suggestion that the increased store might be evidence 

 of increased output of adrenaline and that this increase might be an important 

 factor in the production of oedema was put to the test of experiment. 



Two pigeons — one on a normal diet and the other fed artificially w^ith 

 polished rice — were given daily an amount of adrenaline several times greater 

 than the normal adrenaline-content of the pigeon's suprarenals, i.e., 0-25 mgrm. 

 of adrenaline chloride, which was injected into the pectoral muscles. The 

 experiment lasted from May 31 to June 24, by which time the pigeon on 

 the poUshed rice dietary was at the point of death with severe symptoms of 

 polyneuritis. Its body weight had fallen from 300 grm. to 265 grm., and its 

 cloacal temperature was 10-i'5°. It had had severe ataxia for the preceding 

 forty-eight hours and was then unable to walk or fly. At autopsy there were 

 necrotic patches in the atrophic pectoral muscles, but there was no evidence 

 of sepsis and the heart blood was sterile. There was no trace of oedema. The 

 internal organs were all greatly wasted except the adrenals, whicli weighed 

 75 mgrm. The left gland, which weighed 37'5 mgrm., contained 052 mgrm. 

 of adrenaline and the right gland, which was of equal weight to the left, 

 contained 0-216 mgrm. of cholesterol. 



