THE SUPRARENAL BODIES. 940 
of accessory capsules ; and after a few months of controversy the subject 
gradually dropped, and became for a long time almost forgotten. The 
interest in this subject has been, however, recently revived, and the 
experiments of Brown-Se< ( uard have been repeated by various observers 
(Tizzoni, 1 Abelous and Langlois, 2 and many others). I have myself 
made several experiments of the same kind on various animals 
(monkeys, dogs, cats, and guinea-pigs). All these observations have 
tended to confirm the original statements of Brown -Sequard. They 
show that animals deprived of their suprarenal capsules die rapidly, 
usually in the course of one to three days, with the symptoms above 
noted. The further fact is mentioned by Abelous and Langlois, and 
this is also confirmatory of a statement of Brown-Sequard, 3 that the 
blood 4 of animals dying in consequence of the removal of the supra- 
renal capsules is toxic for other animals which have recently been 
deprived of their capsules, although it causes no toxic results in normal 
animals ; whereas the transfusion of normal blood into the veins of 
" decapsuled " animals tends markedly to prolong their survival of the 
operation. 5 
The symptoms caused by this blood are said by Abelous and 
Langlois to be those of curari poisoning — paralysis, tbat is to say, of 
the intramuscular nerves ; ° and since the most marked phenomena 
resulting from removal of the capsules is extreme muscular weakness, 
it has been concluded by them that after removal of these glands 
a certain toxic product of muscular metabolism accumulates in the 
blood, and that the function of the glands is to remove or destroy 
this toxic principle. 
This is the "autotoxication" theory of the suprarenal capsules, and 
is similar to that which has been applied to the thyroid body. Like 
the other autotoxication theories, it is chiefly founded upon the fact 
that the blood of animals which are moribund in consequence of the 
1 Arch, itaZ. de biol., Turin, 1886, tome x. p. 372 ; Beitr. z. path. Anat. u. z. allg. 
Path., Jena, 1889, Bd. vi. S. 1. Tizzoni thought that removal of one capsule only 
was fatal ; this conclusion was shown to be erroneous by Stilling {Rev. de mid., Paris, 
1890). Tizzoni found in many of his rabbits alterations in various parts of the central 
nervous system, apparently brought on by haemorrhages into the grey matter. 
2 Compt. raid. Soc. dr. biol., Paris, 1891, p. 835 ; 1892, p. 388 : Langlois, ibid., 1893, p. 
444 ; also in tome iv. of " Travaux du Laboratoire de Ch. Richet," 1897, where will be 
found a full bibliography (234 papers) and historical account of the subject of the physiology 
of these organs. Langlois states that it is sufficient to leave T V of the total weight of the 
capsules in the dog in order to insure the survival of the animal. 
3 Journ. de la physiol. de I'hommc, Paris, 1858, tome i. 
4 Also, according to Gourfein {Compt. raid. Acad. d. sc., Paris, 1897, tome exxv. p. 188), 
alcoholic extracts of the blood and organs of "decapsuled" animals. 
5 It is stated by Brown-Secpiard that injection of extract of suprarenal under the skin 
of animals the suprarenal capsules of which have been removed, has a partial success in 
prolonging life {Compt. rend. Soc. de biol., Paris, 1892, tome xliv. p. 410). But it is 
doubtful if they can be kept alive for any length of time, either by injection in this way 
or by the taking of suprarenal by the mouth. It appears, however, to be true that some 
cases of Addison's disease are distinctly benefited by extract of suprarenal capsule, taken 
by the mouth, but whether any such cases have been cured is doubtful. (For reference 
to such cases, see Langlois, "Travaux du Laboratoire de Ch. Richet," 1897, tome iv. p. 93 
et seq.). Abelous {Compt. rend. Soc. de biol., Paris, 1892, Nov. 12) and Gourfein {Rev. mid. 
de la Suisse Rom., Geneve, 1896, p. 113) have succeeded in effecting suprarenal grafts 
in the frog, which prevented the occurrence of the usual symptoms when the animal's own 
suprarenals were destroyed ; on afterwards removing the graft, the symptoms supervened 
as usual. Dominicis {fl'iai. med. JFchnschr., 1897, S. 18), on the other hand, operating 
on rabbits and dogs, invariably found a fatal result to follow removal of the second supra- 
renal, after the first one had been successfully grafted. 
6 This statement is, however, denied by Gourfein {Ret: vied, de la Suisse Rom., Geneve, 
1896, p. 113). 
