In The Netherlands, the infrastructural arrangements show a slightly different pattern that is very illustrative in clarifying how the networks between scientists and the pharmaceutical companies were built. Dutch scientists could not ally themselves with the pharmaceutical industry simply because no Dutch pharmaceutical company then existed. This situation forced scientists to opt for the strongest […]

In 1934, a cargo train arrived at the grounds of the Dutch pharmaceutical company Organon. This train did not carry any conventional cargo such as coal, or instrumental equipment, but a rather extraordinary load: thousands of liters of urine. In the Dutch countryside, horse owners could sell the liquid waste products of their mares for […]

In this chapter we have seen how the new science of sex endocrinology established its material authority. By focussing on one specific feature in the laboratory, the experiment, we obtained a more detailed picture of the impact of laboratory science on meanings and practices concerning the human body. This episode also had major consequences for […]

The introduction of testing methods for sex hormones not only changed medical practices but also transformed the meanings science assigned to sex differences in different respects. First, in the process of testing we see how scientists gradually became more and more remote from common-sense opinions and everyday language. In the early period of hormonal research, […]

Another way in which the hormonal tests came to be used in the clinic was in the treatment of homosexuals. In Chapter 2 we saw how clinicians expected that female sex hormones in male bodies caused disorders in masculinity. One of these “disorders” was homosexuality. The basic assumption underlying this hypothesis was that homosexual men […]

Part I BIOLOGY, PHARMACOLOGY AND CHEMISTRYPart II CLINICAL INVESTIGATIONS BASED ON THEFEMALE SEX HORMONE BLOOD TEST BY Robert T. Frank, A. M., M. D., F. A.C. S. GYNECOLOGIST TO MOUNT SINAI HOSPITAL, NEW YORK With 86 Illustrations and 36 Graphs “Propter secretiones iniemas Iotas, mulier est quod «/” F. A. E. Crew [S’! CHARLES C […]

Use of the tests introduced by laboratory scientists was not restricted to the laboratory. Sex endocrinologists involved in the study of sex hormones transferred the tests from the laboratory to the clinic, thus enhancing their material authority to a larger domain than just the laboratory. In the 1930s, tests developed to measure the sex of […]

Evaluating the experimental practice of hormone research, we may conclude that disciplinary styles are an important factor in structuring the laboratory activities of scientists. In the study of sex hormones, each discipline opted for a specific type of test. Obviously, scientists have specific disciplinary interests with regard to certain test methods. The choice of standard […]

In the measuring of female sex hormones it is obvious that the preferences for specific tests are specific to various disciplines. But what about the measuring of male sex hormones? How did scientists attach the label “male” to substances? Using a logic similar to that used in the study of female sex hormones, scientists decided […]

In The Female Sex Hormone (1929) Robert Frank suggested: “The female principle which we call the female sex hormone is widely distributed throughout the vegetable and animal kingdom.” Frank described the presence of the “female principle” in a wide variety of substances, not only originating from animals and not even restricted to the females of […]