THE REACTION OF MALE FROGS TO EPINEPHRINE1

Abstract

With the exception of a few widely scattered reports (Galli-Mainini, 1947a, 1947b, 1947c; Houssay, 1947), almost all the information available today on the hormonal reactivity of male frogs and toads pertains to the effect of gonadotropins on these amphibia (Robbins, Parker and Bianco, 1947; Galli-Mainini, 1947a, 1948; Wiltberger and Miller, 1948; Miller and Wiltberger, 1948; Robbins and Parker, (literature) 1948). It has been already shown that a number of species of these male amphibia are available for endocrine assay work. The two male species most widely used at present for pregnancy diagnosis work are the South American toad, Bufo arenarum, and the North American spotted frog, the Rana pipiens. In pregnancy diagnosis, reports to date indicate that both animals appear to be quite satisfactory, giving virtually no false positives and very few false negatives (Galli-Mainini, 1948; Robbins and Parker, 1948). In contrast to the above two species the male Xenopus laevis, a South African frog,