120 INTERNAL SECRETIONS OF THE OVARY 



ovulation when it would not otherwise occur, either in the 

 immature or the adult animal. Allen and Doisy (19) , Brouha and 

 Simonnet (90), and Zondek and Aschheim (652) have all 

 arrived at this conclusion. Parkes and Bellerby (504-5) found 

 that copulation at an oestrous period induced either during preg- 

 nancy or lactation never resulted in conception, and thus con- 

 cluded that ovulation did not occur. 



Similar results have been obtained by Slonaker (568), and 

 Steinach, Heinlein,and Wiesner (594) on the senile mouse. After 

 the menopause, when the cycle has stopped, injection of oestrin 

 will bring about cornification of the vagina without the cor- 

 responding ovarian changes. Exhaustion of oocytes may have 

 been responsible for the absence of ovulation under these con- 

 ditions. 



According to Mahnert and Siegmund (436) injection of cestrin 

 into the normal adult tends to retard ovulation. 



Clinical results. Owing to the difficulty of administering 

 adequate doses of the oily extracts to women, clinical 

 research with oestrin has not progressed far. With the new 

 water-soluble preparations it should be possible to make a great 

 advance in this direction. Even so, however, it is far from 

 obvious what part oestrin may be able to play in the correction 

 of reproductive disorders in the human. The premenstrual 

 growth of the uterus is an effect of the corpus luteum, and at 

 least a part of the ensuing menstruation is pseudo-pregnant 

 degeneration (see p. 66). Fraenkel (213-4) in particular has 

 emphasized the improbability that oestrin plays a dominant 

 part in the human cycle. Nevertheless, a variety of positive 

 results have been reported. Wintz (640) and Seitz, Wintz, and 

 Fingerhut (558) record a number of clinical tests of corpus 

 luteum preparations — ' lipamin' and ' luteolipoid,' some of 

 which appeared to give positive results, but it is very difficult to 

 assess this early work. The same applies to the clinical work 

 of Herrmann (292). 



Using definitely oestrus-producing preparations, Pratt and 

 Allen (519) claim to have produced enlargement of the human 

 uterus in cases of both primary and operative amenorrhoea. 

 Menstruation was not produced. Zondek (646) obtained more 

 satisfactory results, while Brouha and Simonnet (104) claim to 



