Abstract
More than two years ago we began experiments to determine whether it would be possible to prolong the life of adrenalectized animals by the administration of adrenal preparations.
Adrenalin injected intramuscularly or subcutaneously every hour or two after the removal of both adrenals did not prolong life. The average length of life for the 7 cats studied was 19.7 hours. The amounts injected at one time were from 0.25 cc. to 0.5 cc. of 1:1000 adrenalin intramuscularly or subcutaneously. The adrenals had been removed from these cats at one operation.
The remainder of the experiments were conducted upon cats whose adrenals had been removed at different operations from two to ninety days apart. The operation was through the lumbar path.
Five cats which were injected intravenously or intramuscularly with material obtained by ether extraction of the dried cortex (beef) lived an average of sixty hours. Two cats injected intravenously or intramuscularly with glycerol extract of the cortex lived an average of forty-five hours.
Nine cats which were injected intramuscularly or intraperitoneally with alcohol soluble material from the cortex lived an average of forty hours. One animal receiving intraperitoneal injections of olive oil extract of the cortex lived ninety-three hours.
The average length of life of all of these cats (17), not including those injected with adrenalin, was 49.8 hours.
On the other hand, 22 adrenalectomized cats injected intravenously, intramuscularly, intraperitoneally or subcutaneously with whole sallinle extracts of cortex lived an average of 146.6 hours.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.