THE PITUITARY BODY 



ports, such as those of Aschheim and Zondek (1927, 1928), 

 Murata and Adachi (1927), Zondek and Aschheim (1928), 

 and Klein (1929) confirmed Aschheim's finding.-^ From im- 

 plantation experiments with placentae of early pregnancy 

 (Aschheim, Maroudis, and others), it may be concluded that 

 prolan is obtainable from the chorionic cells. According to 

 Philipp (1930) and others the placentae of early pregnancies 

 (less than six months) are the richest in prolan. Philipp was 

 among the first to maintain that the prolan so obtained repre- 

 sented an internal secretion of the placenta. He furthermore 

 postulated that the prolan of human pregnancy was entirely 

 secreted by the placenta and not by the cells of the anterior 

 pituitary. The evidence for and against this hypothesis will 

 be considered later. 



Prolan is said not to occur in the gastric juice during preg- 

 nancy (Zondek, 1930). 



In only a few mammals other than man can gonadotropic 

 substances be found in the blood or urine during pregnancy. 

 During a rather sharply defined period high concentrations of 

 gonadotropic hormone can be found in the blood of the preg- 

 nant horse (and possibly closely related animals such as the 

 pregnant deer and donkey).'' The effects of this gonadotropic 

 substance (or substances) are different from those of prolan, 

 and will be considered separately. In the urine of the preg- 

 nant anthropoid ape (e.g., orang-utan and chimpanzee) a 

 prolan-hke substance can be found. xAllen, Maddux, and 

 Kennedy (1931), as well as Snyder and Wislocki (1931), could 

 detect no prolan in the urine of the pregnant monkey [Maca- 

 ca mulatta). On the other hand, using the same species, Asch- 

 heim and Zondek (1928) reported that prolan could be found 

 in the urine; subsequently Philipp (1930) produced a partial 



3 Also see the reports of Bourg, Collip, Fels, Motta, Philipp, Siegert, Wiesner in 

 1930. Among subsequent reports may be mentioned those of Seitz (1931), and 

 Maroudis (1933). 



'' Unterberger, Vozza (1932). 



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