PREPARATION OF CORTICAL HORMONE 233 



were ineffective at best, and were highly toxic when adminis- 

 tered in large doses. 



The commercially available preparations consisting of dried 

 preparations of the fresh glands or glycerine extracts are worth- 

 less insofar as their content of the cortical hormone is concerned 

 for the reasons already cited. Some of the effects that have 

 been reported as following their use are undoubtedly attribut- 

 able to the toxic action of the large amounts of epinephrine 

 and its derivatives which they contain. 4142 None of these 

 preparations can conceivably exert any therapeutic effect which 

 depends upon the presence of the cortical hormone as is demon- 

 strated by their inability to prolong the life of adrenalectomized 

 animals. 249 



The extracts which have attracted the greatest attention in 

 recent years are those of Swingle and Pfiffner, 612 and Hartman 

 and his collaborators. 275 The latter first described a prepara- 

 tion (cortin) in which the hormone was supposedly precipitated 

 by salting it out of aqueous solution. It is very unlikely that 

 this preparation contained any appreciable amount of the 

 hormone. Subsequently Hartman and Brownell 274 described 

 a second method based upon the successive use of various 

 lipoidal solvents. 



Swingle and Pfiffner's method consisted essentially in an 

 application of the procedures which had been successful in 

 isolating the estrogenic substances. Their claims of the great 

 potency of their extract and its ability to maintain adrenalecto- 

 mized cats and dogs alive for over one hundred days were most 

 striking and numerous workers immediately began to apply 

 the new extract to experimental problems as well as to Addi- 

 son's disease. 613 Although the immediate acclaim which 

 heralded the new extract seemed to substantiate the claims of 

 its originators, subsequent work proved disappointing. Many 

 of the patients reported in the literature as "saved" from 

 imminent death by the "hormone" ultimately died within or 

 in many cases before the average time of their survival when 



