Abstract
ONE hesitates to advocate the use of new words, even in a rapidly growing subject such as endocrinology, but obvious anomalies are becoming evident in the description of certain activities of the sex hormones, and there is good precedent for supposing that an improvement in terminology would not only be desirable in itself but also would help to clarify the position. One may recall, for example, that the introduction of the words ‘œstrogenic’ and ‘androgenic’ has done much to promote clear thinking and precision of expression. The application of the word “strogenic” to the biological activities of œstrone, and ‘œstrogen’ to substances having œstrogenic properties, was of course due to the bestknown property of the hormone, that of causing changes characteristic of œstrus.
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01 January 1938
An Erratum to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1038/141073c0
References
Henderson and Henderson, "Dictionary of Scientific Terms" (Oliver and Boyd, 1920).
Dorland, "American Illustrated Medical Dictionary" (Saunders, 1935).
Champy, Bulliard, Kritch, and Demay, Arch. d'Anat. micr., 27 (1931).
Witschi, Bull. Soc. Biol. Lett., 5, 79 (1936).
Burn, "Biological Standardisation" (Oxford Medical Publications, 1937).
See for example, Tenney and Parker, Endocrinology, 21, 687 (1937).
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PARKES, A. Terminology of Sex Hormones. Nature 141, 36 (1938). https://doi.org/10.1038/141036a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/141036a0
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