PHYSIOLOGY, CHEMISTRY AND PATHOLOGY 9 



(2) The cleansed glands are minced to a smooth paste in a grinder 

 of the Latapie type. 



(3) For usual purposes, it is desirable to avoid extraction with any fat 

 freeing substance such as benzin, ether or acetone, inasmuch as there are 

 some reasons for the belief that active substances are contained in the 

 lipoid fraction of the glands. 



(4) Thin layers of pineal paste are spread on granite trays and quick- 

 ly desiccated in a vacuum dryer with heat not exceeding 70 C. 



(5) After a few hours the material is completely dry, and scales 

 easily from the granite trays. 



(6) The pineal material is now in flat lumps. It may be reduced to 

 a fine powder by grinding in a ball mill, or by hand in a mortar. 



(7) This simply prepared material if kept very dry will not appre- 

 ciably deteriorate. For ease in administration it may be diluted with milk 

 sugar, in the approximate ratio of four or six parts of sugar to one of 

 glandular substance, and made into tablet triturates. 



Liquid Preparations. Those workers who have employed liquid ex- 

 tracts in hypodermic or intravenous administrations, usually obtain their 

 material in small quantities through the saline extraction of freshly 

 mascerated glands, or through the saline extraction of the powder pre- 

 pared as noted in the foregoing description. Without special precau- 

 tions, liquid preparations deteriorate rapidly. The protein content may 

 grossly be removed by acidulating with a few drops of diluted acetic acid 

 followed by heating to 90 C. By placing the extract in small ampules 

 (1 c.c.) and heating to approximately 95 C. for 1 hour, the preparation 

 may be protected from appreciable deterioration. By custom, actual boil- 

 ing of extracts is avoided in the belief that part of the activity is thereby 

 impaired. The evidence leading to this conclusion is scant and actual 

 boiling for sterilization might prove practical and desirable. 



Feeding Experiments with Mammalian Forms. If the pineal gland is 

 an organ serving the body through the elaboration of active chemical sub- 

 stances, it is rational to anticipate that these substances contained within 

 the glands may, when fed to animals, induce a condition analogous to 

 hyperpinealism, through providing for the body's utilization additional 

 pineal constituents. 



The syndrome of precocious development seen in man is usually inter- 

 preted as the outgrowth of pineal deficiency, i. e., of hypopinealism. Such 

 being the case, if the feeding of pineal materials determined any changes, 

 a state just opposite that cited above would be anticipated a condition of 

 deferred sexual, mental and somatic maturity. Curious to record, feeding 

 experiments lead either to no determined effects or to increased sexual and 

 somatic development. 



Earlier Feeding Experiments. Dana and Berkeley carried out the 



