Ascheim-Zondek test (A-Z test) was done in 50"s.  Woman's urine injected
subq into immatrue white mice.  If pregnant, the ovaries of the mice will
be enlarged, hyperemic, & hemorrhagic, and will show maturation of the
ovarian follicles. (Blakiston's New Gould Medical Dictionary, 2nd ed, 1956.
 Later on rabbits were used.  After that  male toads (xenopus laevis) were
used, and if the woman was pregnant, they would extrude sperm.

Lee Hover
Director, Scientific Information
Integrated Communications Corp
Parsippany, NJ

-----Original Message-----
From:   Cleo Wilkinson [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
Sent:   Sunday, January 16, 2000 7:24 PM
To:     [log in to unmask]
Subject:        History of Pregnancy Testing ????

Hi Colleagues,

We are requiring papers / articles discussing and outlining the History
of Pregnancy Testing . I have searched medline with little success.
(We also have some information that toads were used for urine screening
for pregnancy
here in Queensland Australia . However we have been unable to find any
documented
evidence of this)Any help in locating a source for any information on
this topic would be greatfully received.
Many Thanks in advance.
Cleo




--
Cleo Wilkinson
Librarian
Sullivan Nicolaides Pathology
Po Box 344
Indooroopilly
QLD 4068
AUSTRALIA

PH : 61 7 3377 8525
FX : 61 7 3377 8737

email : [log in to unmask]


"The chinese do not draw any distinction between food and medicine"
 LIN YUTANG