There is ample evidence in support of the contention that the adrenals play an important part in the destruction of toxic products in the body. As long ago as 1853, one of the leading authorities on the adrenals as ductless glands, Brown-Séquard, noticed that the blood of animals without adrenals was more toxic than that of animals the adrenals of which had not been removed.
Langlois and Abelous[190] confirmed the conclusions of Brown-Séquard. They also established the fact that the blood and muscular extracts of frogs whose adrenals had been removed, were toxic, and contained a poison of the nature of curare. The animals died from auto-intoxication, and these savants came to the conclusion that the adrenals were created to neutralize or destroy poisons which are evolved during muscular work. Frogs from which the adrenals had been removed showed also lessened resistance to muscular fatigue. Similar results have been observed by Langlois in the case of other animals: rabbits, dogs, guinea-pigs, etc. Albanese[191] also found that animals operated on as above exhibited more fatigue than those whose adrenals had been allowed to remain intact. The recent labors of Sajous which have shown conclusively that the adrenals furnish to the blood one of its important immunizing constituents explain all the above observations.
The fact, observed by all these authorities, that when one of the adrenals is removed the other becomes hypertrophied, sometimes to a great extent, seems also to point to the conclusion that greater demands are made on the gland that remains, the hypertrophied condition of which appears to be due to the increased work required of it in protecting the body from infection.
That these organs really assist in the defense of the body against the attacks of microbes or the introduction into it of certain toxic products can be best demonstrated by the fact that after such infections the adrenals are, as a rule, altered, showing that a pronounced reaction antagonistic to these agencies has occurred.
It has thus been proved by a succession of authors: Charrin,[192] Langlois, Roux, Yersin, Professor Roger, and more recently by Oppenheim and Loeper,[193] that in experimental or in spontaneous infectious diseases the adrenals present important alterations as a result of the reaction against infection.
Oppenheim and Loeper found that important changes followed upon experimental infectious diseases; for example, after infection by the bacilli of diphtheria or anthrax, or by the pneumococcus; also in such infectious diseases as diphtheria, pneumonia, small-pox, typhoid fever, etc.; and also after experimental poisonings, as with arsenic, phosphorus, or mercury. There occurred leucocytic reaction, diffuse diapedesis, or infectious nodules, and also a congested condition of the adrenals, sometimes so marked that hæmorrhage took place, with complete destruction of the parenchymatous tissue of the glands.
Very important are the conclusions of Oppenheim,[194] that when animals have received poisonous products, together with adrenal extracts, after having previously lost these glands by operation, such animals show a longer survival, sometimes even of indefinite duration, as compared with animals without adrenals to which have been administered the same toxic products, but without adrenal extracts.
With phosphorus and urinary poisons in particular, this author has obtained most striking results from the injection into animals of adrenal extracts at the same time as the poisonous substances.
Oppenheim comes to the same conclusion as Abelous, Charrin, Langlois and Sajous: that the adrenals play a great rôle in the destruction or neutralization of microbic or other poisons introduced into the system.
We are thus in possession of powerful arguments in support of the presumption that the adrenals are antitoxic glands. The fact, found by Langlois, that the adrenals contain less adrenalin after experimental infectious diseases, and that established by Luksch, that after certain experimental infectious diseases such as diphtheria, typhoid, or tuberculosis, the extract from the adrenals no longer produces an increased blood-pressure, do not seem to us sufficient to invalidate our belief in the antitoxic properties of these glands; for here we are witnessing the same occurrence as has been previously noted in reference to the thyroid,—that the functional hyperactivity of the gland may be followed by its exhaustion.
Moschini, Nicholas, and Bonnamour have also found histological evidences in the adrenals in infectious diseases indicating a hyperactivity of these glands.
The fact that different toxic products, such as alcohol, can produce alterations in the adrenals, indicates also a rôle of these glands in defending the body against toxic doses of this substance (see Chapter III).
It was found by Aubertin[195] and other authors that there is a hyperplasia of the adrenals after experimental intoxication of the guinea-pig by alcohol. Bernard and Bigart found important alterations of the adrenals after experimental poisoning by mercury, arsenic, lead, etc. As shown by Professor Sajous,[196] various drugs act on these glands, and he attributes the rise of blood-pressure therefrom to the action of such drugs on the adrenals, whose function, as is well known, is to raise the blood-pressure. We can thus understand how if alcohol be taken in large quantities it is able to produce atheroma and arteriosclerosis, as are also other toxic bodies, such as nicotine.
It is well known that arteriosclerosis is frequent in great smokers. It has been found by several authorities, among them Borylac, that inhalation, or mastication, of tobacco produces atheroma, and by Boverie and Loeper[197] that similar changes have followed experiments with tobacco or ergotin. Very important data have also been established by Drs. Isaac Adler and Hensel, of New York,[198] who have found that atheromatous alterations of the aorta can be produced experimentally by powerful doses of nicotine. Such alterations were similar to those effected by adrenalin, but were neither so constant, nor so marked.
These experimental facts, together with observations by Dr. Sajous, prove that the atheromatous condition brought about after using certain drugs, such as alcohol and tobacco, can be ascribed to the adrenals. Josué, in 1893,[199] showed that by injecting adrenal extracts (solution 1:1000) into the veins of a rabbit, atheromatous patches of the aorta will appear after five or six weeks. The changes described by Adler and Hensel from the effects of nicotine confirm the probability that tobacco acts on the adrenals first, then, by their medium, on the blood-vessels (see, also, Chapter XLIII).
The above observations show that the same is also probable in the case of alcohol, to which we may add a case of Widal and Boivin, who found in a young woman dipsomaniac a hyperplasia of the adrenals and atheroma of the aorta; and to complete the value of these observations we subjoin those of a series of cases of atheroma by Joshua, in three of which a hyperplastic condition of the adrenals was found.
It follows logically from the foregoing effects of alcohol and tobacco, that we must avoid large quantities of these substances if we desire to keep in a normal condition the heart and blood-vessels, upon the perfect state of which depends, in a great degree, our chances of a long life and extended youthfulness.
We will deal further with the latter points in the following chapter.