The first suggestion that the adrenals might be concernedin the general defence reaction of the body followed observations that these organs sometimes showed marked pathological changes during acute infective and toxic episodes. Several studies were made in which the effect of adrenalectomy on antibody titres was investigated. Reports were contradictory. Thus Hektoen and Curtis (1915) found that the level of circulating antibodies in dogs was not altered by bilateral operation and Gates (1918) reported that the rate of antibody formation by rabbits was unaffected by previous partial adrenalectomy. Jaffe and Marine(1924), on the other hand, obtained higher titres after bilateral adrenalectomy when the animals had been immunized three weeks after operation, but noted that at six weeks there was no difference in the response between operated and unoperated rabbits. Their results were in direct contradiction to those of Perla and Marmorston-Cottesman (1928) who noted decreased rates of antibody production in rats injected during the five weeks following operation,
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Herbert et al. (1949) studied this question.