280 Messrs. B. Moore and S. Vincent. The Comparative 



The Comparative Chemistry of the Suprarenal Capsules." By 

 B. Moore, M.A.. Sharpey Research Scholar and Assistant 

 in Physiology, University College, London, and Swale 

 Vincent, M.B. (Lond.), British Medical Association Research 

 Scholar. Communicated by Professor Schafer, F.R.S. 

 Received November 23, — Read December 16, 1897. 



(From the Physiological Laboratory of University College, London.) 



It has been fairly well established that the paired suprarenal bodies 

 in connection with the sympathetic nervous system of Elasmobranch 

 fishes correspond structurally and functionally to the medulla of 

 mammalian suprarenal capsules.* There is also considerable evidence 

 in favour of the homology of the inter-renal body of Elasmobranchs 

 (and of the suprarenal bodies of Teleosts and Ganoids) with the 

 cortex of mammalian suprarenals. This evidence in the case of the 

 cortical glands is chiefly morphological and histological, the experi- 

 mental results being purely negative.* 



The paired suprarenal bodies of Elasmobranchs have been shown 

 to produce the characteristic rise of blood-pressure when an extract 

 of them is injected intravenously into a living mammal, or persistent 

 contraction of arterioles when an extract is perfused through the 

 blood-vessels of a pithed frog.f It has further been demonstrated that 

 a subcutaneous injection of an extract from these same bodies will 

 produce fatal results in mice, just in the same way as if prepared from 

 the medulla of mammalian supra-renals.^ The inter- renal of Elasmo- 

 branchs and the known suprarenals of Teleosts have no physiological 

 action either administered intravenously or subcutaneously,f J thus 

 rendering it probable that they consist of cortical material only, as 

 had appeared from their histology.* 



Up to the present the comparative chemistry of the subject has not 

 been investigated. 



It has been shown that the medulla of mammalian suprarenal con- 

 tains a substance exhibiting well-marked colour reactions. § Like 

 the physiologically active substance of the medulla, this chromogen 

 has not yet been isolated, but it always occurs closely associated with 



* Collinge and Vincent, ' Anat. Am.,' vol. 12, Nos. 9 and 10, 1896 ; Vincent, 

 ' Birm. Nat. Hist, and Phil. Soc. Prou.,' 1896, vol. 10, Part I ; and ' Zool. Soc. Lond. 

 Trans.,' vol, 14, Part III, 1897. 



f Swale Vincent, ' Anat. Anz.,' vol. 13, Nos. 1 and 2, 1897, and ' Roy. Soc. Proc.,' 

 vol. 61, 1897, p. 64; also 'Physiol. Soc. Proc.,' Mar. 20, 1897. 



% ' Roy. Soc. Proc. (in the press). 



§ Vulpian, ' Cornpt. Rend.,' vol. 43, 1856; ibid., vol. 44, 1857; Virchow, in 

 ' Virchow' s Archiv.,' vol. 12, 1857 ; Arnold, ibid., vol. 35, 1866 ; Krukenberg, ibid., 

 vol. 101, 1885. 



