THE PITUITARY BODY 



and Ruhl, 1933), the urine contained prolan as soon as 10 

 minutes after injection. The hormone often could not be de- 

 tected in the urine 24 hours later. Owing apparently to varia- 

 tions in the individual recipients and the dose, prolan could 

 still be detected in the blood 2-20 hours after transfusion. 



Prolan has been injected intravenously into normal rabbits 

 and its excretion in the urine or its disappearance from the 

 blood has been subsequently followed. Parkes and White 

 (1933) found that about one-third of the intravenous dose 

 was excreted in about 9 hours. They believed that female 

 rabbits, like women, can excrete about 10 rabbit-units of pro- 

 lan per kg, per 24 hours. Lipschiitz and Vivaldi (1934) in- 

 vestigated the disappearance of prolan from the blood of 

 rabbits each receiving 100 "rabbit-units" intravenously. 

 They calculated that 80 per cent of the dose had disappeared 

 after 6-8 hours, and nearly all after 10 hours. In later experi- 

 ments, Lipschiitz and others (1935) followed more closely 

 the rate of disappearance of prolan, and believed that it de- 

 pended upon the renal excretion of the hormone. 



The placentae of normal or acutely hypophysectomized 

 rabbits were found to contain prolan after the intravenous 

 injection of pregnancy-urine (Hill and Parkes, 1931). 



II. GONADOTROPIC HORMONES IN CASES OF MALIGNANT 

 TUMORS OF THE GENITALIA 



The distribution of gonadotropic hormones in human 

 beings with neoplasms of the genital tract is given in Table 

 VI (groups 6, 7, 8, and 9). The gonadotropic hormone found 

 in cases of hydatidiform mole and chorionepithelioma ap- 

 pears to be identical with prolan (or a fraction ["B"] of pro- 

 lan). A similar but not always identical hormone is excreted 

 by^men with'^malignant neoplasms of the testis. The gonado- 

 tropic hormone found in the urine of women with malignant 

 tumors, such as carcinoma of the cervix uteri, is different from 

 prolan but may resemble the hypothetical "A" fraction. 



[224] 



