The Journal of experimental medicine
-
After Blum's discovery of the production of glycosuria by the subcutaneous injection of adrenal extract, Herter has the merit of having found that injection of adrenalin into the peritoneal cavity also produces glycosuria; this is an undeniable fact. Concerning Herter's claim that intraperitoneal injection gives a higher degree of glycosuria than subcutaneous or intravenous injection, we offer no comment since we have made no observations on the glycosuric effect of subcutaneous injection of adrenalin, while we have made only three experiments by intraperitoneal injection. The most we can predicate on the basis of the present experiments is that intraperitoneal injection of adrenalin produces a somewhat higher degree of glycosuria than could be anticipated. ⋯ It was this observation which led to the suggestion that the effects observed by Herter of painting the pancreas might have been due to the escape of adrenalin to the celiac ganglion. This point has not been directly tested, but several experiments were performed in which the adrenals were painted with the effect on sugar production apparently as intense as that obtained by painting the unisolated pancreas. However this may be, and whether the production of sugar after painting the unisolated pancreas is due to the escape of adrenalin to some definite organ covered by the peritoneum (celiac ganglion or adrenals) or whether the peritoneum as a whole is responsible for the sugar production, it appears that, when sugar production follows the intraperitoneal injection of adrenalin, it is not of pancreatic origin.