Abstract
Suprarenal glands of rabbits were determined for epinephrine content by means of Suto-Kojima's colorimetrical method.
(1) When normal rabbits were killed by a blow on the neck and the cadaver was left standing in situ without opening the abdominal cavity the epinephrine store decreased with the lapse of time; 30 minutes were already sufficient to find a diminution, and 5 hours nearly sufficient to occasion a reduction to half of the normal value.
(2) Strychnine was intravenously applied into rabbits, and found also to diminish the epinephrine content of the suprarenals, contrary to the previous investigators, when a moderate amount as 0.5-2 mgrms. strychnine nitrate per kilo of body weight was given, but when a large dose as 5 mgrms. was induced, the epinephrine load remained unaltered in spite of eliciting typical poisoning symptoms. It is highly probable that the cases reported by previous investigators were such. Further a striking fact was witnessed: When strychnine injection was immediately followed by paralysis and death the epinephrine load was measured invariably diminished and in a large extent in spite of a quite short interval of poisoning as about one minute which is characterized by paralysis only. The features observable in the present investigations with strychnine on the epinephrine storage of suprarenals can be understood as effected by three factors, output, new production and breaking down (or transformation) in situ. Thus the present writer has come not only to see cases showing the noneffectiveness of strychnine upon the epinephrine store, which has become one of the reasons why alteration in the epinephrine store cannot be accepted as an index of occurrence of an augmented discharge of epinephrine, but also to add another reason by eliciting the fact that a diminution in the epinephrine can occur under circumstances despite the lack of an augmented secretion of epinephrine or rather of a diminished secretion.
Another explanation as following may be given on trial for this new finding: The epinephrine load in these rabbits was small from the beginning, and this circumstance or circumstances related to this millified the ability of rabbits to respond against strychnine poisoning with convulsions, etc., and on the other hand the poisoning reduced the epinephrine load further.
While the results of Elliott, Stewart and Rogoff and others with direct stimulation of the splanchnic nerve and with strychnine, which we were able to confirm here, imply the deduction that and augmented secretion of epinephrine is not invariably betrayed in the epinephrine load, or otherwise expressed, nonreduction in the latter does not without fail indicate non-acceleration in the epinephrine discharge velocity, the findings in paralysis by strychnine indicate that a diminution in the epinephrine load does not invariably mean occurrence of an augmented discharge of epinephrine. Both facts show thus from different angles that an alteration in the epinephrine load cannot be taken as an index of a change in the rate of epinephrine discharge. As above said, that strychnine is capable of diminishing the epinephrine load is another finding in the present researches.
(3) In the rabbits, in which coldpuncture was conducted and the body temperature was lowered, the epinephrine store was found reduced to some extent.
