THE ACTION OF POSTERIOR PITUITARY EXTRACT UPON VARYING DEGREES OF WATER LOAD ADMINISTERED TO FROGS

¹ Department of Pharmacology, Queen's University, Kingston, Canada

Posterior pituitary extract, injected into frogs given increasing amounts of administered water, retained progressively greater portions of each additional amount of water until a maximal effect was reached with a total injection of 6 tO 8 cc. of water per 100 grams body weight. When further additions of water were given, the extract had little or no water-retaining effect on them.

A wide range of doses of posterior pituitary extract was then tried and it was found that the water-retaining effect of the extract was restricted to relatively large doses of the order of 1 international unit per 10 grams body weight.