AN ANDROGENIC SUBSTANCE IN FECES FROM CATTLE AS DEMONSTRATED BY TESTS ON THE CHICK

THE CHIEF NATURAL SOURCES of androgenic substances have been male and female human urine and testes (1, 2). After comparing the male-hormone content of urine from several sources, Koch (1) reported relatively high concentrations in male human urine (40–100 I.U. per 24 hours) and female human urine (30–100 I.U. per 24 hours) as compared with 8, less than 1, and 4 I.U. per liter in urines from the stallion, bull, and ram, respectively. Although, according to Dohrn and Faure (3), considerable quantities of estrogens are excreted in the feces of gravid women, there appears to be no information concerning the excretion of androgens in the feces. In the course of experiments on chick nutrition (4) at the Beltsville Research Center to determine whether or not feces of cattle could be used as a source of certain members of the vitamin B-G complex, one of us (J. C. H.) observed precocious comb and wattle growth in chicks when their diet was supplemented with either dried feces from cows or a 60 per cent alcohol ex...