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IN 1941, in reporting a study of the normal variation in the urinary 17-ketosteroid excretion, Fraser, Forbes, Albright, Sulkowitch and Reifenstein (14) remarked upon a decrease in some of the subjects following various kinds of injury or stress. In a preliminary report a year later, Forbes (13) gave a few more examples of this phenomenon and speculated upon its possible relationship to the “Adaptation Syndrome” described by Selye (26). Since that time we have studied the problem further, and have accumulated a substantial body of data which it is the purpose of this article to present. The method of total neutral 17-ketosteroid assay employed in these studies has already been described (Fraser, et al. (14)). The sources of the steroids measured are the testis and the adrenal cortex in males, and the adrenal cortex alone in females. Hence, the test provides a chemical measurement which is an index, especially in females, of at least one aspect of adrenal function.
Forbes et al. (Tue,) studied this question.