Concerning the effect of prostate feeding on tadpoles

Abstract

Gudernatsch was the first to call attention to the remarkable influence of the feeding of thyroid and thymus glands on frogs'rarvae. That observer noted that the thyroid causes a dwarfing or shrinkage of the growth and size of tadpoles, and at the same time very rapidly hastens their metamorphosis into frogs, while the thymus, on the other hand, causes giant tadpoles but inhibits their metamorphosis. Gudernatsch and other observers have also studied the effect of feeding of other organs and glands on the development of frogs'rarvae. As far as the present author has been able to ascertain, however, no experiments concerning the feeding of prostate gland to tadpoles are on record. The present author, in connection with a physiological and pharmacological study of prostatic extracts, conducted a series of experiments in feeding tadpoles with desiccated prostatic substance (Armour). The results are so interesting that it is deemed desirable to make a preliminary announcement on the subject in this place.Prostat...