The Pathogenesis of Deficiency Disease. IV. The Influence of a Scorbutic Diet on the Adrenal Glands

This is an old report, difficult to find and therefore scanned.

SUMMARY

A scorbutic diet gives rise in guinea-pigs to--

(1) an increase in size and in weight of the adrenal glands ;

(2) a marked diminution in the adrenalin-content of these organs;

(3) hemorrhagic infiltration of the adrenal glands, usually circumscribed in extent and situated around the peripl;ery of the adrenal cortex; and to

(4) degenerative changes in the cellular elements of the adrenal cortex and medulla.

CONCLUSIONS

1. A scorbutic diet causes pronounced depreciation in functional capacity of the adrenal glands in guinea-pigs.

2. The impairment of adrenal function occurs before clinical evidences of scurvy manifest themselves.