THE HORMONE OP PREPARATION 



Knauer's work and his own he stated the hypothesis of an 

 internal secretion in perfectly clear terms : *'We must assume 

 that a substance is produced by the ovary, which when taken 

 into the blood is able to exert a specific influence upon the 

 genital organs ; and that the presence of this substance in the 

 body is absolutely necessary for the maintenance — and, as my 

 researches show, for the development — of the other genital 

 organs and the mammary glands." 



With such a downright challenge as this, the inevitable next 

 step was for somebody to try to make a chemical extract of 

 ovarian tissue which should contain the potent substance 

 postulated by Halban, and which could be injected into cas- 

 trated animals instead of grafting ovaries into them. Several 

 investigators actually tried it, but they were working in the 

 dark and failed to hit upon the proper chemical steps. There- 

 after for a few years experimenters went off on another trail. 

 From 1911 to 1914 several Viennese and German gynecolo- 

 gists spent a great deal of time and effort searching for chem- 

 ical extracts of the ovary which should produce menstruation 

 in animals. This was a bad idea, for apparently these doctors 

 never stopped to think that the rabbits and guinea pigs they 

 were using do not menstruate anyway. We can see now that if 

 they had used monkeys, which do menstruate, they might have 

 found a clue. As a matter of fact, these men — Adler, Aschner, 

 Schickele — did get a clue, but not exactly what they were 

 looking for. They did not accomplish the miracle of making 

 guinea pigs menstruate, but many of their extracts did have 

 the property of increasing the blood flow through the vessels 

 of the immature uterus, thus making it grow. Unfortunately 

 they did not all use similar methods, and, what was more con- 

 fusing, some of the extracts were made from whole ovaries, 

 some from the corpora lutea (of swine or cows) and some 

 even from human placentas. The situation was so confused 

 that the results were almost meaningless. 



In 1912 and 1913 two workers, Henri Iscovesco in Paris 



{ SI } 



