Disease of the Supra Renal Capsules.

THE suprarenal capsules are small bodies situated above the kidneys. (Fig. 111, 1.) Their office is not well understood. It has been found of late that they are subject to a disorder having peculiar symptoms. This is a comparatively new disease.

Symptoms. The most marked symptom is a peculiar change in the color of the skin, called ,bronzing." This bronzing process begins in patches on those parts exposed to the sun, and to friction, as the neck, the backs of the hands, the fronts of the thighs, and the arms. These patches look, in color, like spots upon a bronze statue, deprived of their gloss.
Another marked symptom is a general debility, which comes on without any apparent cause, there being, generally, no evidence of organic disease, and no loss of flesh, and is attended with faintings, loss of energy both of body and mind, a peculiar flabbiness of flesh, and an early death, apparently from sheer weakness.
The blood becomes depraved, and loses its coloring matter, as shown by the paleness of the skin where there is no bronzing.
The pulse is generally very soft and compressible. The stomach is irritable, the appetite is gone; there is nausea and sometimes vomiting, with pain and a sense of sinking at the pit of the stomach. Frequently there is costiveness, sometimes diarrhea, and pains in the back and loins. In some cases there are epileptic fits, failure of memory, change of temper, or a numbness of the fingers, legs, etc.

Treatment. The only method of treatment that promises any hope of cure in this trouble is a preparation made from healthy Suprarenal

Capsules. These are concentrated and undergo a process which enables the important elements to be retained and a fair proportion of cases are now cured by their use.