Humans Can Continue Life Without Adrenal Glands, Thorn Proves

George W. Thorn, Hersey Professor of the Theory and Practice of Physics, has discovered a way of keeping alive persons whose adrenal glands have been completely removed, by administering cortisone. He described his treatment at the 64th annual meeting of the Association of American Physicians Tuesday.

Thorn performed his experiments at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, in Boston, where he is chief physician. Eight patients whose adrenal glands had been removed as a cure for vascular diseases and high blood pressure were cured and kept alive by the cortisone treatment.

As a result of the treatment, high blood pressure, from which the patients had been suffering, subsided considerably and their enlarged hearts, strained by vascular disturbances, shrank to normal size.