The effects of thermal bath upon the sexual functions such as sexual circle and upon sexual centers such as diencephalon, hypophysis, etc. which control sexual circle were investigated.
1. It was observed by vaginal smear that the elongation of sexual circle by daily thermal bathing was chiefly due to the duplication of diestrus phase, and that the continuous estrus phase was temporarily interrupted by daily bathing on the 1st and 2nd days of bathing and between 10th-13th days. Further it was also ascertained by Hooker-Forbes test that the sensitivity of the uterus to progesterone was enhanced by daily bathing.
2. Castrated rats, which vaginal introitus were closed with calodium, were bathed in 38°C simple water bath containing estrogen for 10 minutes and praestrus or estrus phase were observed in the vaginal smears of these rats after bathing. This effect was more remarkable in accordance with higher estrogen content and in rats which back hair was cut off. The action of estrogen in the solution became almost unrecognizable when mixed in mineral mud. We consider it has a significant value as a new peculiar way of estrogen application to mix estrogen in simple water and let it absorb through total skin area which was induced to state easy to resorb by bath.
3. Simple water bath containing progesterone and androgen induced no definite changes in sexual circle. Continuous estrus phase showed on the 3rd-14th days of androgen containing and on the 3rd-12th days of progesterone containing baths in case of 1st phase deviation.
4. By simple water bath containing copper salt of minor quantity, vaginal smear circle showed marked decrease of diestrus phase and the increase of estrus or metestrus phase.
5. The urinary gonadotropin was decreased on the 3rd day of daily bathings in the most of cases and thereafter came back to the level before bathing or temporarily increased to higher level and then got back to the previons level.
6. Oxygen consumption of diencephalon became rather lower by simple water bath but almost unchanged by copper-sulfate-bath, and was lower after estrogen-bath.
0₂-consumption of the brain cortex showed slightly lower value after bathings of any kinds.
7. The changes of E. E. G. (electro-encephalogram) by daily bathings in several kind of thermal waters, in sexnal hormone containing water, and in copper sulfate containing water were investigated. But no physiological meaning was obtained from E. E. G.
8. The changes of urinary 17-KS and its fraction by bathing were investigated taking the value before bathing as standard, By daily bathing in simple water, 17-KS values fluctuated-significant rise during ca. 10 days and slight fall before and after the rise.
The fraction ratio of adrenocortical substances to substances of sexual glands slightly increased by bath. By daily bathing of simple thermal water, 17-KS showed marked increase on the 3rd and on the 10th day of bathing, and rapidly decreased to the level lower than the level before bathing after cessation of bathing. The fraction ratio described increased remarkably this time. By daily bathing in simple water containing estrogen, the increase of 17-KS following the initial decrease was obscured. The fraction ratio by this time showed no marked changes. By daily bathing in simple water containing copper sulfate, 17-KS increased lately. The fraction ratio increased remarkably.
9. We took oligomenorrhoe cases as a sample in gynecological application of thermal bath, and applied simple water bath containing estrogen, so-called estrogen bath, together with hormone therapy and found better improvement of smear index, fern test and cervical mucus, and the induced genital bleeding. Although estrogen bath itself had only slight effects, but it promoted the therapeutic effects of sexual hormone applied.
Next, as an application of thermal bath in tocology we chose partus inducement in terminal stage of pregnancy. We appli