234 CORTEX 



left untreated. The reports of immediate remedial effects in a 

 disease characterized by spontaneous remissions must be 

 accepted with caution and are of no value in determining the 

 potency of a given preparation. It is only when patients have 

 been maintained in health for a period surpassing that which 

 they would have survived had they remained untreated (cf. 

 Chapter XXI) that one can boast of any therapeutic effect from 

 a given treatment. 



The results on experimental animals also failed to confirm 

 the claims of Swingle and Pfiffner as to the high potency of their 

 preparations, for relatively large doses of extract prepared by 

 their method often fail to serve as a complete replacement 

 therapy in adrenalectomized animals. 245 - 523 Aside, however, 

 from the question as to the potency of extracts, as prepared by 

 the methods of Swingle and Pfiffner or Hartman and Brownell, 

 both methods are unnecessarily complex and expensive, and 

 sometimes yield products of marked toxicity. They need not, 

 therefore, be considered in further detail here. 



The effectiveness with which the adrenal cortical hormone 

 is adsorbed from neutral aqueous solution by charcoal permits 

 the preparation of extracts in a relatively simple manner. The 

 charcoal-hormone combination thus prepared can be adminis- 

 tered directly by mouth without necessitating the elution of 

 the hormone. The hormone can, however, be eluted from its 

 charcoal combination, freed of contaminating impurities, and 

 thus prepared in a form suitable for parenteral administration. 

 In the following sections shall be described the details of the 

 methods utilized for obtaining these preparations. 



THE PREPARATION OF THE CHARCOAL-HORMONE COMBINATION 



Beef glands being most readily available are generally used 

 as the source of the hormone. Pig glands are more difficult 

 to obtain but yield approximately three times as much hor- 

 mone per unit weight as do beef glands. Glands derived from 

 sheep or calves are also probably rich in the hormone, but the 



