RELATION OF THE SUPRARENALS TO ADDISON'S DISEASE

Since Addison, in 1855, described the striking clinical syndrome known by the eponymic term Addison's disease, an apparent relationship between the clinical condition and the suprarenal bodies has been recognized. Addison himself described destruction of the suprarenals by tuberculosis as the underlying anatomic condition in his series of cases. Further correlation of clinical and anatomic observations has shown that not tuberculosis of the suprarenals as such but destruction of these organs by any process may be associated with the characteristic clinical picture. Indeed, Addison's original series included a case in which the suprarenals had been destroyed by metastatic tumor; and later observations have added many cases in which loss of suprarenal tissue due to a variety of processes other than tuberculosis has been associated with Addison's disease. The list of other processes, besides the tuberculous and neoplastic destruction already noted by Addison, includes amyloid change in tertiary syphilis, gumma in