Isolation of 16β-Hydroxyœstrone from the Urine of Pregnant Women

HAVING been informed that we had succeeded in isolating 16β-hydroxyœstrone from the urine of pregnant women, Dr. T. F. Gallagher of the Sloan-Kettering Institute, New York, most courteously suggested to us that we should publish a preliminary account of our work simultaneously with his own announcement of the detection of the same compound by reverse isotope dilution in the urine of a human subject after the administration of œstradiol-17β-16- 14 C (succeeding communication). The completion of our own work would have been delayed by many months if Dr. Gallagher had not provided us, before publication, with details of his method 1 for synthesizing 16β-hydroxyœstrone from œstrone via the enol diacetate of the latter. It is a pleasure to acknowledge his generous co-operation.