Action of certain (Jland Kxtracts and |)ru;,'s upon I'trrus of Rat ^3 



cent, to 08 per cent, no ert'ect was pcrciiplible. Kven with strentrths of 

 from I per cent, to o per cent, tliere was j^entMally very little etfect pro- 

 duced, althouijh (XJcasionally a tone increase was observable at the l)ei^inning 

 of innner.sion, but this wa.s .soon recovered from. 'I'he results with boiled 

 thyroid extract must therefore be considered nej^ative. 



KXTR.VCT UK OUCHITIC SUB.ST.\NCE. 



F'or thf investiiration of the action of tiiis substance I iiave used desic- 

 cited testicle-sub.stance of lamb (Armour <&: Co.). Kxtracts were made by 

 boiling with Locke solution and subse(juently filtering. Even with so 

 strong a dose as would correspond to 10 per cent, fresh gland 1 have failed 

 to get any noteworthy effect on the uterus of the rat, although Ott (IH) 

 states that extracts (jf this substance produce a slight increase of tone in 

 the uterus of the rabbit and cat. 



E.XTRACT Ol' L'tEHU.S. 



Gusrerisbercr (15) found uterine extract from the cow to have no action 

 upon the excised uterus of the guinea-pig, but in one experiment in which 

 an extract was made from the uterus of a gravid cow an increase of tone 

 was observable. 



My own experiments were made with extracts of the uterus of the rat. 

 One of the cornua was minced, boiled with Locke solutic^n, and the extract 

 filtered or decanted and kept at 37' C. This extract was passed into Locke 

 solution in which the other uterine cornu of the same animal was immersed. 

 The strength of the uterus extract was about 0-2 per cent. Out of five 

 experiments, in four no effect was observable ; in one relaxation of the 

 general tone of the muscle was produced, the rhythmic movements being 

 maintained. 



Extract of Cerebral Substance. 



Ott (18) states that he w^as able to observe a marked increase of con- 

 traction in the excised uterus of the cat and rabbit on immersion in extract 

 of dried brain-substance (Armour & Co.). 



For my own experiments a Locke extract of tabloid cerebrin of sheep 

 (Burroughs, Wellcome & Co.) was employed, the extract being as usual 

 boiled and filtered. This had practically no influence upon the rat's 

 uterus. 



Nicotine. 



Franz (2) noticed that in the uterus of the rabbit intravenous injection 

 of nicotine produced powerful contractions. He obtained the same result 

 with portions of excised uterus both rabbit and human. Cushny (19), 

 also using the method of injection, found that in the cat both nicotine and 

 adrenalin act upon the uterus in the same way as pilocarpine, their effects 



