Hormones and structural development / by Charles R. Stockard.

  • Charles Rupert Stockard
Date:
[1927]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Hormones and structural development / by Charles R. Stockard. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    73/80 page 71
    INDICATOR FOR TESTING GONADAL SECRETIONS All of the foregoing discussion shows the importance in the body economy of the endocrine secretions from the sex glands. Yet all of the phenomena so far discussed are simply qualitative changes resulting from a hit or miss method of experiment, and none of the results mentioned are definitely measurable or quantitative in type. This is necessarily true, since up to the present time there has been no definitely established indicator against which the gonadal secretions could be definitely measured or standardized. The results of experiments may be spectacular, but they are of little definite value unless quantitatively expressed and subject to accurate repeti¬ tion, The chemical preparations or extracts of gonadal hormones must be brought up to some such point of standardization as that already obtained for the suprarenal substance and insulin. In order to attain this aim there must be devised some indicator against which these secretions may be accurately measured and tested. For the past eight years Dr. Papanicolaou and the present writer have been studying the ovarian reactions in guinea pigs by using the changes in the uterine and vaginal epithelia as an indicator for the ovarian condition. The action of ovarian hormones on the uterus and vagina are very definite in giving certain cellular expressions which may be accurately recognized. In making daily smears from the content of the vagina it was found that the cellular appearance changed in a very exact way in correspondence with the sexual stage of the animal. These observations were controlled by both operations and autopsies so as to establish a definite connection between the appearance of the smear, the condition of the vaginal wall, the uterine wall, and the ovary. These relations have been so clearly analyzed
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