We are thus in possession of powerful arguments in support of the presumption that the adrenals are antitoxic glands. The fact, found by Langlois, that the adrenals contain less adrenalin after experimental infectious diseases, and that established by Luksch, that after certain experimental infectious diseases such as diphtheria, typhoid, or tuberculosis, the extract from the adrenals no longer produces an increased blood-pressure, do not seem to us sufficient to invalidate our belief in the antitoxic properties of these glands; for here we are witnessing the same occurrence as has been previously noted in reference to the thyroid,—that the functional hyperactivity of the gland may be followed by its exhaustion. Moschini, Nicholas, and Bonnamour have also found histological evidences in the adrenals in infectious diseases indicating a hyperactivity of these glands. The fact that different toxic products, such as alcohol, can produce alterations in the adrenals, indicates also a rôle of these glands in defending the body against toxic doses of this substance (see Chapter III). It was found by Aubertin[195] and other authors that there is a hyperplasia of the adrenals after experimental intoxication of the guinea-pig by alcohol. Bernard and Bigart found important alterations of the adrenals after experimental poisoning by mercury, arsenic, lead, etc. As shown by Professor Sajous,[196] various drugs act on these glands, and he attributes the rise of blood-pressure therefrom to the action of such drugs on the adrenals, whose function, as is well known, is to raise the blood-pressure. We can thus understand how if alcohol be taken in large quantities it is able to produce atheroma and arteriosclerosis, as are also other toxic bodies, such as nicotine. Footnote 195: Aubertin: C. E. Soc. de biologie, 22 juillet, 1902. Footnote 196: Sajous: Loc. cit. It is well known that arteriosclerosis is frequent in great smokers. It has been found by several authorities, among them Borylac, that inhalation, or mastication, of tobacco produces atheroma, and by Boverie and Loeper[197] that similar changes have followed experiments with tobacco or ergotin. Very important data have also been established by Drs. Isaac Adler and Hensel, of New York,[198] who have found that atheromatous alterations of the aorta can be produced experimentally by powerful doses of nicotine. Such alterations were similar to those effected by adrenalin, but were neither so constant, nor so marked. Footnote 197: Société d’Anatomie, Mai 31, 1907. Footnote 198: Deutsche Med. Wochenschrift 8, 1906.