The author took experimental investigations concerning the variations of ascorbic acid content as well as the change of histological structure in the suprarenal gland of guinea-pigs, which had been fed with vitamin-C diet for several days before the experimentation and were submitted to combustion of considerable degree at the back and the lateral region of the abdomen after shaving. The results may be summarized as followings:
1) Ascorbic acid content in the suprarenal gland of guinea-pigs suffering from combustion decreases gradually as time progresses. Its decreasing ratio is greater than the control normal animal and most remarkably contrasted especially in an earlier stage after the combustion.
2) The decrease of ascorbic acid content in the suprarenal gland of guinea-pigs suffering from combustion is greater in amount according as the degree of combustion is serious.
3) It may be pointed out as principal changes of the histological structure due to combustion in the suprarenal gland that the decrease of lipoid substances, atrophy, swelling and necrosis of cell, karyolysis and karyoklasis, vasodilatation, hyperaemia and blood stagnation in cortex; vacuole formation in medulla.
4) These histological changes, though manifold according to the degree of combustion and to the time course after it, are most prominent in reticular and fascicular zones in the suprarenal gland.
5) Lipoid substances in the suprarenal gland after the combustion are almost disappeared in the haemorrhagic and necrotic areas.
6) Although there are parallel relations between the decrease of ascorbic acid content and the change of histological structure in the suprarenal gland after the combustion, occurrence of the former precedes in time than the latter.
7) It is concluded that the decrease of ascorbic acid content and the change of histological structure in the suprarenal gland after the combustion are due to the action of toxin produced by combustion.