Abstract
1. The blood serum, blood corpuscles, saliva, sweat, milk and other secretions of menstruating women contain a toxic substance characterized by specific pharmacological and chemical reactions.
2. This menstrual toxin or menotoxin is very much more powerful in its effects on plant protoplasm than on animal tissues, so that its nature and properties can be best studied by phyto-pharmacological methods.
3. The menotoxin while elaborated in varying quantities by different individuals can be demonstrated in almost every subject; and it occurs in the largest quantities in any one individual premenstrually or just before the onset, and during the first few days of menstruation.
4. The presence of menotoxin can be demonstrated through its inhibitory effect on the growth of roots and stems of whole living seedlings, through its blighting effect on cut flowers, through its distorting influence on the geotropic properties of seedlings, through its inhibitory influence on the growth of yeast and through other phenomena.
5. Microscopically menstrual serum was found to be more deleterious for protoplasm than normal serum in respect to its effects on protoplasmic streaming and the consistency of plant protoplasm.
6. Zoöpharmacological experiments performed by the present investigators together with findings of other authors in regard to the effect of menstrual sera on animal tissues corroborate the phyto-pharmacological evidence as to the existence of a menstrual toxin and at the same time reveal the fact that animal tissues are very much less sensitive to menotoxin than plant tissues are.
7. The menotoxin is fairly resistant to heat and to the action of bacteria and its presence can be demonstrated in dry blood. It is not dialyzable but it can be extracted to a greater or lesser degree by alcohol, chloroform, ether and acetone.
8. Endocrinologically the production of menstrual toxin is probably intimately correlated with the physiology of ovary and corpus luteum and clinically its occurrence corresponds closely with the so-called menstrual cycle of Von Ott.
9. Chemically, menstrual toxin exhibits properties which point to its possible relationship to oxy-cholesterin.
10. The experimental data obtained by the authors in the study of menotoxin confirm in a striking degree the empirical observations concerning a menstrual poison prevalent in folklore and handed down in classical literature.
Footnotes
- Received November 14, 1923.
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