Health Sciences · Temerty Faculty of Medicine
Two cardboard cartons each hold five small 1 cc. glass vials containing a brown/ amber liquid. The cartons are sealed using a paper label with red lettering. One carton was opened. The other remains sealed.
The vials are marked with a label with red lettering and are sealed by a rubber cap. The coating on the caps is deteriorating.
Accession Number: 2026.med.70.1-2
Alternative Name:
Primary Materials: Cardboard, Glass
Cartons and vials are marked with a lot number: “18-A”, and an expiration date: “Dec 20 1940”.
Marked on the bottom of each carton: “R5724// 17 11”
(Each carton) Height = 2, Width = 4.2, Length = 6.4.
Pituitary extract, prepared from the posterior lobe of bovine pituitary glands, was used over the first half of the 20th century to induce or augment labour, and to treat surgical shock as well as other surgical complications. It was also used to treat diabetes insipidus, a rare condition.
The cartons are full, unused, and in excellent cosmetic condition. One of the two cartons remains unopened. The surface (possibly a coating) on the rubber caps that seal each vial is deteriorating.
Associated Instruments:
Connaught Laboratories, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON.
Date of Manufacture: c. 1940s
Provenance:
University of Toronto (1938). University of Toronto Academic Divisions Calendar, 1938-1939. The University of Toronto Press: 86.
University of Toronto (1937). “In Obstetric and Surgical Practice: Pituitary Extract (posterior lobe)…” The Canadian Medical Association Journal 37(3): 305.
University of Toronto (1943). “Pituitary Extract (posterior lobe): For Use in Obstetrics in Surgery and in the Treatment of Diabetes Insipidus.” The Manitoba Medical Association Review 23(2): 50.
Malitha Patabendige, Daniel L Rolnik, Wentao Li, Andrew D Weeks, and Ben W Mol (2025). “How Labor Induction Methods Have Evolved throughout History, from the Egyptian Era to the Present Day: Evolution, Effectiveness, and Safety.” American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology 7(1): 101515.
Pituitary extract was introduced in the early 20th century as a means to induce or augment labour. It was abandoned around the middle of the 20th century due to issues such as uterine rupture due to uterine hyperstimulation. It was replaced by the 1960s, by oxytocin, a synthetic drug (see Patabendige et al 2025). It was also used to treat surgical shock as well as diabetes insipidus,
“Pituitary extract (posterior lobe)” first appears among the products of Connaught Laboratories listed in the 1938 – 1939 issue of the annual University of Toronto Calendar. However advertisements for the product appear slightly earlier in the Sept 1937 issues of the The Canadian Medical Association Journal and the Manitoba Medical Association Review. Similar advertisements appear, with some changes, over the 1940s. (See, for instance University of Toronto 1943, 50).