THE HORMONES IN HUMAN REPRODUCTION 



A process apparently resembling menstruation in the 

 elephant shrew of South Africa has recently been described by 

 Van der Horst and Gillman. The species in question belongs 

 to a family of animals which has been assigned by some 

 naturalists to insectivores and by others to the primates. 



In summary, it begins to appear that menstruation is not 

 sharply limited to the higher primates, but that on the 

 contrary it exists in a rudimentary form in other families 

 of primates and primate-like animals. (See S. A. Asdell, 

 Patterns of Mammalian Reproduction, Ithaca, N.Y., 194!6.) 



Note 10 (page 137, line 26). Menstrual cycles in infra- 

 human primates. Thanks largely to the work of Zuckerman 

 and Gillman, the cycles of two species of baboon have now 

 been studied in numbers large enough to warrant comparison 

 with other primates. The cycles are longer than those of the 

 human species and the Rhesus monkey, averaging about 33 

 to 36 days, modal length, in various groups of animals. (The 

 subject of menstrual cycles in primates is thoroughly re- 

 viewed in S. A. Asdell, Patterns of Mammalian Reproduction, 

 Ithaca, N.Y., 1946.) 



Note 11 (page 141, line 33, and page 201, footnote). The 

 gonadotropic substances of the pituitary gland and the 

 placenta. When this book was first written, it was thought 

 best in the interest of clarity not to refer in detail to the moot 

 question of the existence of two or more gonadotrophic sub- 

 stances. The problem is still not settled, but it has become 

 somewhat better defined, and for the sake of readers who wish 

 to proceed from the very general account given here, to the 

 more technical literature, the following outline is now sup- 

 plied. 



The prime fact is that the pituitary gland, the placentas 

 of certain species, the urine of pregnant females of certain 

 species, and the blood serum of the mare, all contain hormonal 



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