The Adrenal Cortex and the Sympathetic Nervous System

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Abstract
Having considered effects of the cortical steroids and the epinephrines upon the vasomotor system, the heart, the blood, the brain, and the metabolism of carbohydrate, protein, fat, water, and electrolytes, the authors conclude: "The adrenal cortical steroids and the epinephrines appear to operate largely as a functional unit physiologically. The multiple sites of action and character of tissue and organ responses to the two species of hormones are strikingly similar. Many actions attributed to the steroids may be ascribed, in effect, to action of the epinephrines. Many actions of the epinephrines are not elicited in the absence of steroids. Corticoids and neurohumors are not interchangeable, however. Steroids maintain the integrity and responsiveness of tissues in the process of reacting to the epinephrines. This relationship is best seen on exposure to stress, when the defect of steroid lack may be elicited by heightened sympathetic-medullary activity. In the absence of the corticoids responses to the neurohumors are progressively lost, while the destructive symptoms of adrenal insufficiency are progressively exhibited.".