ii6 



Scientific Proceedings (34). 



II. As Exner and Meltzer and Auer found, the intravaneous 

 (Meltzer and Auer) and intraperitoneal (Exner) injection of adrena- 

 lin delays the absorption of fluoresceine and other substances from 

 the tissues, from the peritoneal cavity and from the blood vessels. 

 On the other hand, we found that adrenalin has a distinctly accel- 

 erating effect upon absorption of isotonic sodium chloride solutions 

 from the peritoneal cavity, if adrenalin is injected repeatedly intra- 

 peritoneally during a period of two and a half hours. This accel- 

 erating effect is absent in nephrectomized animals ; it is, however, 

 noticeable in rabbits injected twenty hours previously with uranium 

 nitrate and is still indicated in animals injected with uranium nitrate 

 three days before testing the absorptive power. 



Adrenalin also causes an increase in the secretion of urine and 

 the improved absorption might therefore perhaps be ascribed to 

 the increased elimination of fluid through the kidneys. Such an 

 interpretation seems to be strengthened, if we consider that in 

 nephrectomized animals this effect of adrenalin is absent. On the 

 other hand, in individual experiments, parallelism between the ab- 

 sorption from the peritoneal cavity and the degree of diuresis fre- 

 quently is absent. In experiments concerning the effect of coffeine 

 upon the absorption from the peritoneal cavity we found that after 

 injection of coffeine the absorption from the peritoneum may be 

 very slight notwithstanding a verj' strong diuresis. We also notice 

 that during the first period of the action of uranium nitrate the in- 

 creased diuresis is not accompanied by a corresponding increase in 

 absorption. 



Notwithstanding these possible objections, at the present we 

 cannot yet exclude the possibility that the improvement in absorp- 

 tion from the peritoneal cavity under the influence of adrenalin is 

 due to the diuretic action of this substance. The difference in 

 absorption from the peritoneal cavity which we notice in experi- 

 ments with animals after nephrectomy on the one hand and after 

 administration of uranium nitrate on the other hand, is of interest 

 and may perhaps be a causative factor in the edema which develops 

 in animals injected with uranium nitrate. 



Furthermore these experiments suggest that adrenalin may 

 improve the absorption of water, but at the same time retard the 

 absorption of sodium chloride from the peritoneal cavity. We 

 have begun experiments, in order to decide this question. 



