RECENT STUDIES ON ANTI-HORMONES *

ABOUT a year ago at the Chicago meeting of this Society it was my privilege to report upon a theoretical conception which I had evolved in an endeavor to explain certain results which had been obtained in our studies on pituitary extracts, and with a view to directing further work along spe-cific lines. Tonight it is again my privilege to report to you the results which have been obtained in the McGill Biochemical Laboratories during the past year in the course of studies upon anterior pituitary physiology, but with particular reference to anti-hormones. The anti-hormone theory as originally proposed was as follows: For each hormone there may be an opposite or antagonistic principle. This antagonist is present in the normal subject but may not be detected until it exceeds in amount the hormone substances with which it is balanced. The analogy was drawn between the hormone anti-hormone complex and a chemi-cal " buffer " system, and in this way the anti-hormone theory was related to the principle of inverse response. The postulated dual hormone contro