354 



Mr. S. Vincent. 



4. The bodies do not contain the chromogen which is always 

 present in suprarenal medulla. 



5. The lymphoid " head-kidney " presents none of the features, 

 anatomical or histological, which would lead one to conclude it had 

 anything to do with the suprarenal gland : moreover, extracts pre- 

 pared from it have no physiological action, and contain no 

 chromogen. 



6. Other portions of the kidney give the same negative results. 



7. No other gland or tissue which might be suprarenal medulla is 

 revealed by the most careful dissection. 



From these observations we are forced to the conclusion that the 

 medullary portion of the suprarenal capsules is non-existent in 

 Teleostean fishes.* 



" The Effects of Extirpation of the Suprarenal Bodies of the 

 Eel (Anguilla anguilld)^ By SWALE Vincent, M.B. (Lond.), 

 British Medical Association Research Scholar. Com- 

 municated by Professor E. A. Schafer, F.R.S. Received 

 February 3 —Read February 10, 1898. 



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



Since an extract obtained from the suprarenal bodies of Tele- 

 ostean fishes produces no rise of blood-pressure when injected 

 into the blood-vessels of a living mammal, f and since the extract 

 produces no physiological effects when injected subcutaneously,J and, 

 moreover, contains no chromogen, it § seems clear that these bodies 

 contain nothing corresponding to the medulla of the suprarenal 

 capsules of the higher vertebrata.§ These results entirely corroborated 

 the opinion previously entertained from morphological and histo- 

 logical considerations, that the suprarenal gland of Teleostean fishes 

 consists entirely of cortex. || 



Now all we know about the functions of the suprarenal capsules is 

 confined to the medulla,^" and although the cortex bears every appear- 



* There may of course be some gland or tissue somewhere in the body which 

 pours into the blood-stream a substance having the same physiological action as that 

 which can be extracted from mammalian medulla, but unless this were a definite 

 gland, and possessed a recognisable histological structure, we could not reasonably 

 call it suprarenal medulla. 



f Swale Vincent, ' Roy. Soc. Proc.,' vol. 61, p. 68. 



X Swale Vincent, ' Roy. Soc. Proc.,' vol. 62, p. 177. 



§ P>. Moore and Swale Vincent, ' Roy. Soc. Proc.,' vol. 62, p. 2S0. 



!| Swale Vincent, ' Anat. Anz.,' vol. 14, No. 5, 1897, p. 152 ; see also %. 

 ■J Oliver and Schafer, ( Journ. of Physiol.,' vol. 18, No. 3, 1895, p. 269 ; Swale 

 Vincent, ' Journ. of Physiol.,' vol. 22 (Nos. 1 and 2), Sept. 1, 1897, p. 119. 



