GONADS AND THE PITUITARY BODY 



follicle-stimulating hormone, oestrin, luteinizing hormone, 

 and progesterone, is given by Hisaw and others (1934). 



It is worthy of note that the gonadotropic potency of the 

 pars glandularis in pregnancy is reduced only in those ani- 

 mals (man and horse) the body fluids of which also contain 

 large amounts of "oestrin" during pregnancy. 



All explanations of feminization of male animals and mas- 

 culinization of female animals — as by testicular grafts or the 

 injection of testicular hormone into females, or by ovarian 

 grafts or the injection of ovarian hormones into males — must 

 take into account the part played by the anterior pituitary. 

 Moore and Price (1932) have studied this question particu- 

 larly from the standpoint of the alleged antagonism between 

 the internal secretion of the testis and that (or those) of the 

 ovary. On the basis of numerous experiments, they con- 

 cluded that the testicular and ovarian hormones are not 

 directly antagonistic toward each other. On the contrary, it 

 appears that they are alike, if present in the body fluids in too 

 high a concentration, in inhibiting the secretion of gonado- 

 tropic hormone(s) by the anterior pituitary. Either testicular 

 or ovarian (oestrin) hormone may therefore damage either 

 the testis or the ovary, not by direct eff'ects, but by interfer- 

 ing with the secretion of gonadotropic hormone by the pitui- 

 tary. As work subsequent to that of Moore and Price has 

 shown, the effects of oestrin (and probably of testicular hor- 

 mone) on the pars glandularis include changes more complex 

 than is implied in the statement simply that oestrin and 

 testicular hormone inhibit the secretion of gonadotropic hor- 

 mone."^ 



SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS 



The secretion of gonadotropic hormone and the response of the 

 gonads in relation to age and development. — Gonadotropic hor- 



■*' Also see Golding and Ramirez (1928); Borchardt and others (1929); Leonard, 

 Meyer, and Hisaw (1931); Schoeller and Gehrke (1933); Halpern and D'Amour 

 (1934); and Wade and Doisy (1935). 



