The author carried out experiments on mice to find out whether the two different extracts of the adrenal body (cortical and medullary.) have an antitoxic effect on the poisons. The results obtained may be summarized as follows :
1. The medullary extract shows no antitoxic action, but it increases the toxicity of some poisons. This effect is identical with that of adrenaline.
2. The cortical extract decreases markedly the toxicity of certain poisons, such as morphine, cocaine and papaverin.
3. The cortical extract influences the toxicity of morphine to the greatest extent, whereas it is unnoticeable in the case of quinine, caffeine, strychnine, thebain and urethane.
Through these experiments, it is considered that the antitoxicity of the adrenal body is the function of ist cortex. It is also believed that the discrepancy of the results of the experiments by former investigators is due to the fact that they were using only adrenaline, an extract of the adrenal body as a whole, or an extract obtained from the cortex not totally separated from the medulla.
It is worthy of note that the antitoxic action of the cortical extract is limited only to certain poisons, and it is especially effective in the case of morphine. This is in accordance with Lewis' observation that the toxicity of morphine remakably increased on adrenalectomized rats.
