PRI0R TO 1939, it was generally agreed, as summarized by Mason (1), that only man, monkey and the guinea pig required extraneous sources of ascorbic acid; that vitamin C deficiencies in these species probably caused no specific repro-ductive disturbances; and that the high ascorbic acid content of such endocrine glands as the adrenal cortex, corpus luteum, anterior pituitary, ovary and testis was not directly related to reproductive or endocrine functions. However, evidence has been accumulating during the past decade which indi-cates that vitamin C may play a part in the regulation of normal reproductive processes and that the utilization of ascorbic acid may be partially under endocrine control. Biskind and Glick (2) found that the corpus luteum of pregnancy in the guinea pig contained twice as much vitamin C as that of the non-pregnant female, and Ley (3) reported that ascorbic acid was of therapeutic value in the treatment of habitual abortion in women.
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Erb et al. (1942) studied this question.