UNDESCENDED TESTES

Abstract

In a recent communication toThe Journalwe¹demonstrated that the anterior pituitary-like principle from the urine of pregnant women may produce such marked stimulation of genital growth in young boys that a syndrome resembling premature puberty results. The present paper is concerned with the influence of this material on undescended testes. Since Schapiro's²report eight years ago, the anterior pituitary-like principle has been used extensively in the treatment of this condition. In spite of numerous observations in other clinics showing a high incidence of successful results, we have consistently been unable to produce descent in most instances of true cryptorchidism.³In order to explain this discrepancy a critical survey of the problem is desirable. An analysis of the results of other observers⁴is given in table 1. It may be seen that there were 860 undescended testes in 579 patients. The condition was bilateral in