The effects of prolonged œstriol administration upon the sex skin of macaca mulatta

Abstract

The work of Collings (1926), Allen (1927, 1928), Morrell (1930), and Parkes and Zuckerman (1931) on rhesus monkeys has established the fact that the brilliant coloration of the skin about the genitalia and the face, loosely referred to as the sex skin, and seen in both the female and male of this species, can be called forth by the administration of œstrous-producing hormone. Parkes and Zuckerman could not produce it in the case of one castrate male rhesus and a castrate female bonnet monkey. M. radiata , but they obtained in an ovariectomized baboon the full swelling seen during the follicular phase, and Dohrn, Hohlweg and Schoeller (1932, 1933) working with both male and female baboons and employing crystalline “ progynon,” were uniformly successful in eliciting a reaction, which in the male specimens of this species consisted of a remarkable œdema of the genitalia. In the present paper we should like to report our own experiments concerning this particular skin reaction to œstriol. Material and Technique Eight macaques, including one immature and four adolescent animals, were studied. Of the total, five were normal animals, four of these being males. The remaining three comprised one castrate male and two hypophysectomized-castrate females.