THE GENERATIVE GLANDS 4! I 



and atrophy of the testes. The administration of glycerine 

 extract of prostate subdued these symptoms or prevented their 

 occurrence. 



The conclusiveness of Serralach and Pares' experiments is 

 questioned by J. P. Haberern on the justifiable grounds that 

 prostatectomy, as carried out by them, was not complete. As I 

 know from my own experiments, total extirpation of the prostate 

 of dogs is attended by considerable technical difficulties, and I 

 am prepared to support Haberern in his view, that the internal 

 secretion of the prostate can be proved only by extirpation experi- 

 ments which are free from objection, reinforced by the results of 

 the transplantation of the organ. The implantation site most 

 suited to the prostate is the bone tissue. Primary atrophy of the 

 prostate in man may cause aspermatism. 



Glycerine or watery extracts of the prostate of bulls (Thaon, 

 Posner, and Kohn) and of dogs (Biedl) are extremely toxic. The 

 intravenous injection of a few cubic centimetres produces a marked 

 rise in arterial tension, followed by an equally marked fall ; there 

 is arrest of the heart's action and asphyxia. These symptoms are 

 most probably due to intravascular coagulation. 



Uterus. The difference in the symptoms of suppression 

 which follow extirpation of the uterus, extirpation of the ovaries, 

 and extirpation of both uterus and ovaries, led O. O. Fellner 

 (1908) to assume that the uterus possesses an internal secretion, 

 the action of which is both toxic and vaso-contrictor, and which 

 starts the menstrual wave. Fellner supposes that there is an 

 antagonism between the internal secretory activity of the uterus 

 and that of the ovary, the function of the ovarian secretion being 

 to neutralize the toxic product of the uterus. There is no experi- 

 mental foundation for this hypothesis. As far as is at present 

 known, extract of uterine tissue is physiologically inactive. As 

 Fellner himself pointed out, the toxic effect which is obviously 

 produced by the intravenous injection of homologous uterine 

 extract, is probably the result of intravascular coagulation, 

 brought about by the comparatively large amount of thrombo- 

 kinase present in the uterine mucosa. In the course of my own 

 experiments, I have been unable to confirm an effect of ovarian 

 extract which is described by certain French authors (Hallion, 

 Delille), namely, that it produces hypotension and has an elective 

 vaso-dilator effect upon the vessels in the thvroid gland. The 

 production of such a result by the intravenous injection of ovarian 

 extract could hardly be regarded, moreover, as proof of an internal 

 secretory function on the part of the ovaries, for, as we have 

 frequently pointed out, depressants are present in many tissue 

 extracts. 



Placenta. The internal secretion of this organ plays an 

 important part in the modern theory of eclampsia. We will 

 confine ourselves to a few brief comments upon the subject. 



