Effects of Extirpation of the Suprarenal Bodies of the Eel. 355 



ance of being an actively secreting gland, one can at present offer no 

 satisfactory suggestion as to the nature of its activity. It is even a 

 matter of surmise whether it has any functional relationship to the 

 medulla., considering its distinct origin and location in Elasmobranch 

 fishes.* 



It is almost universally acknowledged that removal of the supra- 

 renal gland in mammals (Brown-Sequard,f Tizzoni,J and Oliver 

 and Schafer§), and in frogs (Abelous and Langlois||), is invariably 

 followed, sooner or later, by death, and that the symptoms during* 

 life are those of extreme muscular prostration. Of course in all 

 these cases both cortex and medulla have been removed together, and 

 it would be impossible to state how far the fatal effects were due to 

 loss of the medullary substance, and how far to the loss of the 

 cortical. But Teleostean fishes, having only cortex, seemed to offer 

 an admirable opportunity of testing how far the cortical suprarenal 

 glands were essential to the life of the animal. 



Among Teleosts the eel is practically the only fish available for 

 this purpose ; since in most species the suprarenal bodies lie on the 

 dorsal surface of the kidney, and would be practically inaccessible 

 during life. Again, the length of time an eel will live out of water,, 

 and its power of resistance to the shock of operation, render it pecu- 

 liarly suitable for extirpation experiments. 



The eels were anaesthetised by being placed for a short time in 

 chloroform water. The operations were performed as aseptically as 

 possible, but without the use of chemical antiseptics. An incision an 

 inch or so in length was made to one side of the anus, reaching the 

 middle line in front of this aperture. The abdominal cavity being 

 opened, the edges of the wound were held apart by means of retrac- 

 tors. The gut was pushed over to one side, and the ventral surface 

 of the kidney laid bare. The suprarenal bodies were then picked 

 out with a pair of fine curved forceps. After any bleeding had been 

 checked, the wound was sewn up and dressed with a layer of flexible 

 collodion. 



In three cases in which the animals survived the operation, they 

 have appeared quite lively soon after being put back in the tank. 

 One survived twenty-eight days, another sixty-four days, and a third 

 was killed on the 119th day. These experiments show that an eel 

 will survive the operation of extirpation for a very much longer 



* Swale Vincent, ' Zool. Soc, Lond. Trans./ vol. 14, Part III, April, 1897, pp. 

 52—56 ; also 'Birm. Nat. Hist, and Phil. Soc. Proc.,' 1896, vol. 10, Part I, p. 1. 

 f ' Journ. de la Physiol., 5 vol. 1, 1858. 



X 'Zieglers Bertrage,' vol. 6, 1889, and 'Arch. ital. de Biol.,' vol 10. 

 § Loc. cit. 



IJ ' Compt. Eend. de la Soc. de Biol.,' 1891 ; also Hid., 1892, and 'Archives de 

 Physiol.,' 1892. 



