SCIENCE OF LIFE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 125, 28 May 1932, Page 9

SCIENCE OF LIFE.

AN ELUSIVE ELEMENT. Important Discovery Reported In Canada. SEX HORMONE ISOLATED. (United P.A.—Electric Telegraph—Copyright) (Received 11 a.m.) OTTAWA, May 27. Dr. J. B. Collip, of McGill University, Montreal, announced to the Royal Society of Canada on Friday the isolation of a sex hormone in pure form. It was described as a great advance in the chemistry of life and was acclaimed by the many biologists in attendance. 'Die isolation of this elusive element of life has been said to offer possibilities of a great boon to women whose physical wellbeing may be much improved bv its use.

Dr. Collip's announcement came during Ida presidential address to the Biological Sciencee section. He described the progress of this work, which had been conducted over a period of years by a group of yosng scientists at Mc» Gill, headed by himself, and lie conducted a discussion regarding hormone in relation to the pituitary and other ductless glands, ovaries and placenta.

Jt is understood that the next problem is to accumulate this hormone in its pure form and in sufficient, quantities to make it accessible to physicians in treating illnesses peculiar to women. This, it was stated, if made available, would result in relieving women of much of the pain connected with child-bearing and the change of life.

As the secretions (hormones) of the various glands in the domestic animals are somewhat similar to those in the human body, it has recently been a not unusual treatment to obtain extracts from glands of sheep, etc., and administer them as drugs to patients whose bodies are deficient in some definite gland secretion. Of these extracts those from the thyroid and the pituitary have been most frequently and longest used. The ovarian hormones are yet given somewhat experimentally, although many doctors claim that their patients have improved under such treatment. There is so much inter-relationship and interaction between the various secretions travelling with the blood stream that there is yet little definite information which can be brought into practical use.