To the doctrine of the "female sex hormone"

If until now the functions of individual elements of the ovary have not been clarified with sufficient certainty and the mechanism of action of its internal secrets is not yet completely clear, yet at present considerable factual material has accumulated that makes it possible to somewhat characterize the internal secretion of the ovaries in their influence on the organs of the sexual apparatus and on the entire body of women. In the ovary of a sexually mature woman, three formations may be important for its intersecretory function: the yellow body, the follicular apparatus and the interstitial gland. The temporary appearance of the yellow body, in the form of corpus lut. menstruationis and its long-term persistence during pregnancy in the form of corpus lut. graviditatis has long attracted the attention of many researchers and pointed out its functional significance. After Vogp and Prenant expressed the view that the yellow body is a gland with internal secretion, this question began to be developed by a number of researchers. At present, based on the large amount of experimental data available in the literature, obtained both on animal and human material, it is possible to point out some provisions that are more or less generally recognized.