TREATMENT OF SEXUAL UNDERDEVELOPMENT IN THE HUMAN MALE WITH THE ANTERIOR PITUITARY-LIKE HORMONE OF URINE OF PREGNANCY*

Abstract

Since announcements by Zondek and Aschheim (1) and Smith and Engle (2) that pituitary transplants would induce precocious sexual maturity in immature rats and mice and the discovery by Zondek and Aschheim (3) of the gonad-aetivating hormone in the urine of pregnant women, a wealth of experimental knowledge on the pituitary-gonadal relationship has been developed. While Engle (4, 5) aud Evans and Simpson (6) have demonstrated clearly that the actions of pregnancy urine extracts are not identical with those of anterior pituitary transplants or extracts, their actions both as a luteinizing agent and as a gonad-activator so closely similates that of pituitary extracts that their use has been generally adopted. In fact, Engle has shown that the pregnancy urine extracts are possibly more effective than actual pituitary extracts in stimulating descent of the testes of monkeys. This indication is of the utmost significance because of the availability and universal use of the urine extract. While the greater part of the experimental work has been done on female animals, there is sufficient proof that the hormone from pregnant urine activates the jonads of both male and female.