Evening star., 1936-09-11
ACTIVITY FASTER
IN NEW HORMONE
Swiss Chemist Discloses
Another Step in Male
Sex "Synthesis."
BY HOWARD w. BLAKESLEE,
Associated Press Science Editor.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. September II.
New artificial male sex hormones
with approximately five times the
activity" of the natural substance
were announced today at the Harvard
tercentenary by DR.. Leopold Ruzicka,
Swiss chemist from Zurich.
He suggested that the artificial hor-
mones might be improvements on ma
ture. But he said 1t would be years
before any uses for man would likely
be found.
DR.. Ruzicka a year ago made the
first artificial male sex hormone. This
chemical "synthesis" was important
because natural sources have not
yielded enough Of the hormone for
experiment. The artificial hormons
acted on animals the same as the
natural one.
Subsequent Discoveries.
Today Dr. Ruzicka reported his sub.
sequent discoveries. Several types Of
more active hormones, he said, have
been made by attaching additional
chemicals to the original pure arti-
flcial hormone.
The substances attached are chem
ical "esters." An ester Is q combina-
ton of an alcohol and an organic
acid. The esters which make the
super-hormones were from formic,
acetic and propionic acids.
Their effects we're tested by giving
them to animals with growth stunted
in secondary" sex characteristics
such as combs on roosters.
The more powerful super-hormones
did not cause combs to grow five
times as large as normal, but one fifth
the amount of hormone was needed
to produce the same effect as that
Of the normal hormone.
Unidentified Substance.
From the tissues Of animals, DR..
Ruzicka said, substance called *, Z"
because its chemical composition is
unknown, has been extracted and
when added to the natural hormone
gives activity equal to the new arti-
fetal super -hormones.
The deduction from all these ex-
periments is that the male sex hor-
none reacts with other chemicals in
the body, and that its specific effects
on any part of the body depend partly
on the chemicals it finds there.
Discovery Of rapid circulation Of
metal and other inorganic particles
through the body. even through bones
and teeth. was reported by August
krogh, M. D., Danish Nobel prize
winner in physiology and medicine.
A "radium microscope" detected
the movement. One of the first prac-
tical observations of the discovery Is
that fat eaten at meals first de
posits" in the body before being burnt
up for production of energy.
Another Nobel prize winner, Sved-
berg, Swedish chemist, gave the
solution Of one of the mysteries of the
human-how proteins dissolve.
ProteinS, the building blocks" Of
flesh, are gigantic compared with most
other vital elements. Svedberp
showed that a protein molecule with
weight Of 6,740000 atomic units,
which means 1t is almost large enough
to be visible under microscope. acts
like a marching army when it comes
to an obstacle. 1t associates" he
said. into eights or sixteenths.
Bacteriophage "Identified.~
Evidence that bacteriophage, q
substance which kills disease germs,
but which has puzzled the medical
profession for years because it has
never been seen, is q protein, was
presented to the Harvard tercentenary
yesterday by DR.. John H. Northrop of
the Rockefeller Institute.