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IT HAS BEEN FOUND (1) that the amount of andro gen excreted in the urine of normal adults varies from day to day when determined by the Zimmermann (2) reaction. This fluctuation is approximately ± 40% about a mean which is relatively constant for an individual, even over long periods of time. This finding has been recently confirmed (3). However, Callow (4) demonstrated that there is normally a nonspecific chromogenic fraction which gave a color value of about 6% of the total in a small number of urine specimens from several subjects. Talbot (5) confirmed this although he found a much higher value for this fraction in a number of instances. The question thus arises whether the daily fluctuation in total androgen output of the individual subject is accounted for by changes in the output of this nonspecific component or in the output of the specific 17-ketosteroids. Callow (4) has used the ratio of absorption coefficients with green and violet filters EG/EV, to determine whether an extract is relatively pure or whether there is a good deal of contaminating chromogen. This is possible since the absorption curves for the pure hormone and for the impurities are quite different. Thus Callow found a ratio of EG/EV of less than 0.8 with the Spekker photometer to be consistent with reasonable purity of an extract. This is equivalent to a ratio of extinction coefficients EG/EV of more than 1.5, using the photoelectric colorimeter (5). This ratio, when applied to the day-today rise and fall of 17-ketosteroid output indicates that this change is not due to impurities (1). Forbes and Friedman (3) have approached the problem of eliminating the factor of non-specific chromogens by a mathematical equation, but find the daily variation still persists.
Sidney C. Werner (Mon,) studied this question.