In general, it is our opinion that to prevent disease in an organ the surest method is to use those means through which that organ, when diseased, is found to benefit. Of course this is only meant as a general statement; but in the children of those suffering from liver complaints such preventive treatment is particularly indicated, as these conditions, we have found, are most frequently inherited. We have treated cases where three or four generations of one family had been sufferers from the same complaint. Here, as always, let us follow the wise precept: “Prevention is better than cure.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER XV. ON THE DESTRUCTION OF TOXIC PRODUCTS BY THE ADRENALS. THERE is ample evidence in support of the contention that the adrenals play an important part in the destruction of toxic products in the body. As long ago as 1853, one of the leading authorities on the adrenals as ductless glands, Brown-Séquard, noticed that the blood of animals without adrenals was more toxic than that of animals the adrenals of which had not been removed. Langlois and Abelous[190] confirmed the conclusions of Brown-Séquard. They also established the fact that the blood and muscular extracts of frogs whose adrenals had been removed, were toxic, and contained a poison of the nature of curare. The animals died from auto-intoxication, and these savants came to the conclusion that the adrenals were created to neutralize or destroy poisons which are evolved during muscular work. Frogs from which the adrenals had been removed showed also lessened resistance to muscular fatigue. Similar results have been observed by Langlois in the case of other animals: rabbits, dogs, guinea-pigs, etc. Albanese[191] also found that animals operated on as above exhibited more fatigue than those whose adrenals had been allowed to remain intact. The recent labors of Sajous which have shown conclusively that the adrenals furnish to the blood one of its important immunizing constituents explain all the above observations. Footnote 190: Abelous et Langlois: Archives de physiologic norm. et path., p. 267, vol. iii, 1892, and “Travaux de Laboratoire,” Lancet, August 20, 1898; Société de biologie, 1892. Footnote 191: Albanese: Archiv. Ital. di Biologia, p. 338, 1892. The fact, observed by all these authorities, that when one of the adrenals is removed the other becomes hypertrophied, sometimes to a great extent, seems also to point to the conclusion that greater demands are made on the gland that remains, the hypertrophied condition of which appears to be due to the increased work required of it in protecting the body from infection.