In two sisters a female pseudohermaphroditism was found, due to constitutional hyperplasia of the adrenal glands. The typical alterations of external genitals already present at birth were associated with an early appearance of secondary sexual characters of the male type and exaggerated expulsion of the 17 urinary ketosteroids.
There were signs of a deficiency of mineral-and glycogen-active hormones, but they were not such as to give clinic manifestations.
In one of the patients the amputation of one third of both adrenal glands caused a transitory improvement.
The familiality observed in these cases leads the authors to assume a hereditary transmission of the recessive type.