Document vBDaL3Jwj2KO8O4vmJ3rnyQYm

TUMORS OF THE ENDOCRINE GLANDS 733 heretofore, have been attributed generally to an activation and malignant transformation of misplaced embryonic rests. Nicotine, a parasiticide extensively used in recent years in agriculture and horticulture, has been incriminated in the development of adenomatoid hyper plasias in the medulla of suprarenal glands of rats (Staemmler). This investi gator injected subcutaneously o.i mgm. of nicotine daily over a period of several months into rats, and observed at autopsy nodular formations of benign but occasionally infiltrative character in the suprarenal medulla in six of the twelve thus treated animals. The nodes consisted of indistinctly outlined acini composed of large, plasmatic cells, which contained light stained nuclei with a poor chromatic structure. The very vascular nodes were sometimes multiple. The chromaffinity of the cells was lower than that of the surrounding normal medullary cells. The cortex of the affected glands was atrophic. The development of these nodular hyperplasias is attributed by Staemmler to a stimulating action of nicotine upon the function of the medulla. This observation is important as it may suggest the presence of causal relations between exogenous agents, hormonal disturbances, and neo i plastic growth. BIBLIOGRAPHY Brass, K. A., Frankfurt. Ztschr. f. Path. 50: 63, 1936. Davis, D. J., Arch. Path. 26: 339, 1938. Heep, W., Frankfurt. Ztschr. f. Path. 50: 48, 1936. Hellwig, C. A., Am. J. Cancer 23: 550, 1935. 'Hoffstatter, cited by Staemmler, M., Virchows Arch. f. path. Anat. 295: 366, 1935. Jaffe, R. H., Arch. Path. 23: 821, 1937. Lubarsch, O., Deutsche Ztschr. f. Chir. 227: 48, 1930. McClendon, J. F., Am. J. Cancer 35: 554, 1939. Oberling, C., Gurin, M., and Gurin, P., Compt. rend. Soc. de biol. 123: 1152, 1936. I Staemmler, M., Virchows Arch. f. path. Anat. 295: 366, 1935. Klin. Wchnschr. 15:404, 1936. Twort, C. C., and Ing, H. R., Ztschr. f. Krebsforsch. 27: 308, 1928. Wagner-Jauregg, J., Zur Kropffrage. J. Springer, Wien, 1924. Weil, A., Arch. Path. 26: 776, 1938. Yoshida, T., Virchows Arch. f. path. Anat. 283: 29, 1932. $ i t.