THE PITUITARY BODY 



immature mouse or rat, is excreted in the last third than in 

 the first two-thirds of pregnancy. Hamburger (1933), for ex- 

 ample, found that the maximum excretion occurred during 

 the second and third months. Oestrin, on the contrary, is 

 excreted in greater amount as the pregnancy advances. In 

 toxaemias occurring late in pregnancy, however, abnormally 

 large amounts of prolan were found in the urine which often 

 contained less than the normal amount of oestrin (Smith and 

 Smith, 1934). Murphy (1933) believed that the excretion of 

 the hormone could be accurately determined only in 24-hour 

 specimens of urine. Following placental death, abortion, or 

 normal delivery, the amount of prolan in the urine dimin- 

 ishes rapidly and may disappear in less than a week after the 

 termination of pregnancy. 



During pregnancy (see Table VI, group i) prolan has been 

 detected in many tissues and body-fluids of the mother, in- 

 cluding at least part of the contents of the pregnant uterus.'' 

 The tissues, particularly of the young fetus, fetal urine, as 

 well as the blood and urine of the newborn child, have all been 

 found to contain prolan. The relative concentrations of pro- 

 lan in the blood and urine throughout pregnancy are of inter- 

 est because of their bearing on the behavior of the substance 

 in the body. However, there is no report of any quantitative 

 value available comparing urinary concentration or total ex- 

 cretion with concentration in blood, because an acceptable 

 technique for the quantitative biological assay of prolan has 

 rarely been used. As will be pointed out later, "units" which 

 are mentioned are difficult to evaluate qualitatively and are 

 usually of little quantitative significance. The most careful 



^ For reports on the distribution of prolan, chiefly of qualitative value, see the 

 following: Aschheim (1926, 1930), Aschheim and Zondek (1927, 1928); Zondek and 

 Aschheim (1927, 1928); Briihl (1929); Ehrhardt (1929, 193.3); Philipp (1930); 

 Siegert and Schmidt-Neumann (1930); Zondek (1930, 1931); Huddleston and 

 Whitehead, Macchiarulo, Trancu-Rainer, in 1931; Cozzi, Heim, Loeser, Vozza, 

 Winter, in 1932; Castagna, Maroudis, Smith and Smith, in 1933; von Arvay, Fuku- 

 shima, Garofalo, Geist and Spielman, Kaneko, Smith and Smith, in 1934; Gutman 

 and Dalsace, Zuckerman, in 1935. 



[178] 



