THE TREATMENT OF UNDESCENDED TESTES WITH ANTERIOR PITUITARY-LIKE SUBSTANCE1

Clinical findings, beginning with those of Cushing and his co-workers (1) and of Aschner (2) about 25 years ago, and the more recent experimental results of Zondek (3), Smith (4), Smith and Engle (5), Evans and Long (6), Moore and co-workers (7), in animals, furnish clear cut evidence of the effect of the anterior lobe of the pituitary on the growth and function of the gonads. While extensive observations on animals were being carried out by various investigators on the effects of the pituitary, Aschheim and Zondek (8) noted the presence in the urine of pregnant women of a substance that stimulated the sex glands. Shortly afterward, the production of genital growth and testicular descent with this material was reported by Schapiro (9) in a large percentage of boys and young men with hypogenitalism and cryptorchidism. Since then several reports have appeared, most of which give high percentages of successful results. To some surgeons familiar with the finding at operation of anatomical factors making desce...