THE HORMONE OF PREPARATION 



changes in the vagina) is the very same substance that Halban 

 had predicted and that Iscovesco, Fellner, Frank, Herrmann 

 and many others had extracted, in varying degrees of im- 

 purity, from ovaries and placenta. It not only acts upon the 

 vagina and makes the immature uterus grow with remarkable 

 speed, but it also stimulates growth of the external genital 

 organs and of the mammary glands. 



Complete chemical purification proved very difficult. After, 

 collecting a supply of follicle fluid by tapping hundreds of 

 ovaries, or grinding up a batch of ovaries or placentas, 

 extracting with alcohol and putting the extract through 

 twenty chemical steps, it was disheartening to find that vari- 

 ous oily contaminants, some known and some unknown, 

 insisted upon following the hormone through all the processes 

 of purification. 



At this point another unexpected discovery came to the res- 

 cue. In two European laboratories (Loewe, 1926, and Asch- 

 heim and Zondek, 1927) it was found that a substance having 

 the same potencies is excreted in the urine of adult human 

 females. Especially during pregnancy, when the hormone is 

 present in the placenta in large quantities, it passes through 

 the kidneys and into the urine in large amounts. Investigators 

 now began to look for it in the urine of other animals, and 

 Aschheim made the almost incredible discovery that it is pres- 

 ent in enormous amounts in the urine of stallions, surely the 

 least feminine of animals. The reasons for this strange fact 



Pi,ATE XVI. A, cross sections of uteri of immature Rhesus monkeys showing 

 the eflPect of estrogenic hormone. Left, untreated anftnal. Right, treated animal. 

 Note growth and differentiation of tissues. Magnified 8 times. From the Journal 

 of Morphology, by courtesy of Edgar Allen and the Wistar Institute of 

 Anatomy and Biology. 



B, uteri of immature rabbits, showing effect of estrogenic hormone. Left, 

 untreated rabbit, 6 weeks old. Right, litter-mate sister after 10 days' treatment. 

 Note growth (thicker horns), increased circulation of blood (shown by darker 

 color of horns), and improved muscle tone (shown by coiling of the horns). 

 2/3 natural size. Preparation by author. 



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