THE EFFECT OF THE TUBERCULO-TOXIN ON THE ADRENAL FUNCTION

The following work was undertaken for the purpose of producing an experimental chronic insufficiency of the adrenal glands. It was then our intention to study this experimental insufficiency in relation to the other glands of internal secretion, and to compare it with the clinical picture of Addison's disease. Thus far all experimental work has resulted only in an acute insufficiency of the adrenal function. Excision of the glands is followed by death in two or three days. It was accordingly necessary to devise some means of slowly but progressively injuring the function of the glands. For this purpose it was decided to try the injection of tuberculin over long periods. Tuberculin was selected because of the evidence presented by certain workers in this field that chronic tuberculosis causes a sclerosis and atrophy of the adrenal glands. Bernard and Bigard1have found, in the adrenals of the tuberculous, a