42 Itaojaki 



a 



In my experiments on the uterus of the rat, Parke, Davis k Co.'s adrenalin 

 has been employed, the strength of the solution used being from 1 : 100,000 

 to 1 : 10,000. The result in this animal is always to produce inhibition 

 of the rhythmic movements (tig. 8), with or without relaxation of the 



Fig. 3. — EHect of adrenalin (1 in 50,000) on suspended cornu uteii of rat. Notice the 

 complete inhibition of the rhythmic movetnents. 



general tone of the muscle, and this whether the uterus were from a 

 pregnant animal or not. As we have seen ((S), extract of corpus luteum 

 produces an increase of tone in nearly all cases in the rat, so that 

 in this respect adrenalin has an effect directly contrary to that of corpus 

 luteum extract. 



Thyroid Extract. 



Lindemann and Aschner (13) state that extract of thyroid, freed 

 fi-om peptone and protein, brings on labour pains in the parturient subject. 

 Bell and Hick (14), who employed preparations obtained from the Well- 

 come Laboratory, failed to obtain any result upon the uterus of the rabbit 

 in the non-pregnant condition, whereas increase of tone was obtained in uteri 

 taken from pregnant and puerperal animals. Guggisberg(15) describes an 

 increase of tone in the uterus of the guinea-pig as tlie result of immersion 

 in expressed juice of sheep thj'roid diluted with physiological salt solution. 

 Mosbacher (16), using the thyreoglandol preparation of Hoffmann, La 

 Roche & Co., was unable to obtain any effect as the result of intravenous 

 injection in rabbits, but sometimes got contraction in the excised uterus 

 immersed in the solution. Fuchs (17) also describes contraction of the 

 uterus of the rabbit as being obtained on immersion of the excised organ 

 in expressed thyroid juice. 



In my own experiments fresh sheep's thyroids were minced, boiled with 

 Locke solution, and filtered. With extracts of such strengtlis as 0*4 per 



