Guinea Pig Copulatory Reflex in Response to Aqueous Extracts of Adrenal Cortex

Abstract

It has been demonstrated that progesterone1,2 and desoxycorticosterone3 will elicit the copulatory reflex in the spayed guinea pig after preliminary estrogen treatment but that certain androgens will not do so.4We thought it of interest to determine whether aqueous extracts of the adrenal cortex which contain the life-maintaining principle would produce this reaction.The method used to test the cortical extracts was similar to that described by other workers.4 Two groups of guinea pigs, A and B, consisting of 60 and 11 animals respectively, were used. The results obtained from administering graded doses of the extract on successive weeks are shown in Table I.It will be seen that there is a relation between the dose administered and the number of animals showing the copulatory reflex. The data on the small group are included since the response to each dose agrees so closely with that of the larger group. Furthermore, group B was given each dose of the extract one week prior to the administration of the cor...