Studies on the conditions of activity in endocrine glands. V, The isolated heart as an indicator of adrenal secretion induced by pain, asphyxia and excitement / by W.B. Cannon.

  • Walter Bradford Cannon
Date:
[1919?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Studies on the conditions of activity in endocrine glands. V, The isolated heart as an indicator of adrenal secretion induced by pain, asphyxia and excitement / by W.B. Cannon. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    of the rhythmically contracting intestinal segment, whereas that re- moved afterwards produced a marked relaxation. The conclusion was drawn that the adrenal glands are affected through nervous channels when a sensory trunk is strongly excited and that they then pour into the blood stream their secretion. The foregoing conclusion was supported a year later (1912) by Anrep who found that the denervated limb or kidney at first expands but later quickly contracts when the central end of the cut sciatic nerve is stimulated (11). If the adrenal glands were removed or the splanch- nic nerves were cut, the phase of contraction disappeared. Since the organs (limb or kidney) were denervated, the only factor which could cause their contraction in the presence of a rise of general blood pressure must be some agency brought by the blood stream; and since the phenomenon disappeared on exclusion of the adrenals, the con- clusion was drawn that adrenal secretion, poured out in consequence of reflex stimulation through the splanchnics, produced the observed vasoconstriction.!. The observations of Anrep on the denervated limb have recently been confirmed by Pearlman and Vincent (12). _ The following year (1913) Levy reported the incidental observation that after both stellate ganglia had been removed and both vagus nerves cut, stimulation of the sciatic nerve occasioned irregularity of the heart (13). He also noted that excitation of the peripheral end of the cut splanchnic would cause the same cardiac changes, and that they did not occur if the adrenal gland was removed on the stimulated side. He therefore concluded that on sciatic stimulation the denervated heart was being affected by adrenin discharged reflexly. In 1917 Florovsky (14) undertook an investigation of a strange fact previously observed by Ostrogorsky, which was that if the cervical sympathetic and the chorda tympani nerves are severed, and the secretory effect of a dose of pilocarpin is disappearing, sciatic stimula- tion causes a considerable increase in the flow of saliva. The effect was so striking that he looked for a third nerve to the submaxillary gland but could not find it. Under the conditions described by Ostro- gorsky, Florovsky succeeded in producing augmented salivary secretion 1 In the same year with Anrep’s observation, Elliott reported (Journ. Physiol., 1912, xliv, 406) exhaustion of the adrenal gland with intact nerve supply when the: sciatic nerve was stimulated periodically for four hours. Since Elliott’s methods: were concerned with a quantitative assay of the amount of adrenin left in the gland after stimulation, and not directly with adrenal secretion, his results will not be considered in the present review of the evidence.
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