1905-6.] Standardising Suprarenal Preparations. 
157 
On the Methods of Standardising Suprarenal Prepara- 
tions. By I. D. Cameron, M.B., D.P.H., Assistant to the 
Lecturer on Physiology, Edinburgh School of Medicine for 
Women. ( From the Laboratory of the Royal College of 
Physicians , Edinburgh.) Communicated by Dr D. Noel 
Paton. 
(MS. received March 5, 1906.) 
Since a number of preparations of the suprarenal capsules are 
now extensively used in therapeutics, it seems of some importance 
to determine the relative value of those most generally used. In 
the course of a series of experiments on the antagonism between 
nitrites and suprarenal preparations, and again between these 
organic extracts and those of the thyroid gland, it became necessary 
to determine the exact amount of the minimal effective dose. This 
afforded an opportunity of investigating the methods applicable 
to the standardisation of these preparations and their relative 
efficiency. 
Since Takamine’s * preparation of a pure product of adrenalin, 
many extracts of the suprarenals have been put on the market. 
Meyer f has now established the precise nature of adrenalin and 
has prepared it synthetically, while Dakin t has, also by synthesis, 
prepared a body closely allied to it and with a similar physiological 
action. It has now become possible for manufacturing chemists 
to prepare a practically pure and uniform product. To test how 
far uniformity exists in the present preparations, the following were 
examined 
Adrenalin (Parke, Davis & Co.). 
Suprarenalin (Armour & Co.). 
Hemisine (Burroughs, Wellcome & Co.). 
Several other commercial preparations were tested, but the 
results were found to be uncertain even with the administration of 
very large doses ; in a few cases a fall of blood pressure instead of 
a rise was given. 
* American Journal of Pharmacy, 1901, p. 523. 
t Arch. f. Ex'per. Path., xxxv. p. 213. 
+ Proc. of Roy. Soc., Oct. 7, 1905, p. 491. 
