THE PITUITARY BODY 



injection of serum of spayed women (operative or after 

 X-ray treatment) or of women with symptoms of ovarian 

 hypofunction (irregular menstruation, functional amenor- 

 rhea). The hormone might appear in the blood as early as 

 8 days after bilateral ovariectomy, and could be recognized 

 in patients who had undergone operation 13 years previously. 

 Other investigators have obtained the hormone from the 

 urine of women not only in cases similar to Fluhmann's, but 

 also at or after the menopause and in cases of migraine. 

 Like Zondek, they have considered it to be identical with the 

 prolan "A" excreted in cases of cancer of the female geni- 

 talia (Zondek, 1930; Bruhl, 1932; Hamburger, Osterreicher, 

 Saethre, 1933; and others). The amount excreted may be 

 several hundred rat-units per liter urine. In old men an in- 

 creased urinary excretion of a gonadotropic hormone is less 

 frequent or less pronounced (Kukos, 1934). This is probably 

 due to the fact that testicular secretion may continue to an 

 advanced age; a sharply defined climacteric does not occur 

 in men (Saethre, 1935). 



Unquestionably its effects differ from those of prolan." 

 The hormone does not stimulate the interstitial cells of the 

 immature mouse testis (Gostimirovic, Neumann and Peter, 

 1 931), but does, unlike prolan after similar administration, 

 cause follicle growth and uterine hypertrophy in immature 

 guinea pigs (Leonard, 1934).-'** The "mouse-unit" of the 

 hormone is smaller than the "rat-unit," whereas the reverse 

 is true of prolan (Hamburger, 1933; Leonard and Smith, 

 1934). In senile mice several irregular oestrous cycles may 

 follow the administration of the hormone, but only one fol- 

 lows the similar administration of prolan (Bickel and Buschke, 

 1933). In immature rats and monkeys the gonadotropic 



37 But its effects on the anterior pituitary resemble those of prolan (Severing- 

 haus, 1934J. 



3* For observations on the combined effects of this hormone and prolan or an- 

 terior pituitary also see Anselmino and Hoffmann (1934), and Lipschiitz (1935). 



f 228 1 



