Sixty-two vinyl polysiloxane casts from subjects in the lying, supine position were measured for surface area with five shapes: conical, parallel sides, heart, slug, and pumpkin seed being included. The surface areas ranged from 65.73 to 107.07 cm² with a mean of 87.46 cm² and a standard deviation of 7.80 cm². There were no significant differences in surface area among the shape groups. And no correlations with surface area were found by parity or by rod length, introital diameter, posterior length of casts as measured with string, or greatest width and greatest depth of casts. 70% of the casts had a surface area of 84.50 cm² or above, and 90% had a surface area of 77.72 cm² or above. Variation within the interquartile range (75th to 25th percentile) was ±5.2% of the median.

Full vaginal casts of 39 Caucasian women, 13 each nulliparous, uniparous and multiparous, were made using vinyl polysiloxane impression material. Vaginal lengths were measured with polished acrylic rods inserted by the subjects, and introital diameters were measured with conical polypropylene flasks. Parallel sided, conical, heart, and slug shapes were found. Lengths ranged from 6.86 to 14.81 cm; widths ranged from 4.8 to 6.3 cm; introital diameters ranged from 2.39 to 6.45 cm. No significant differences by parity or shape were found.

Full vinyl polysiloxane casts of the vagina were obtained from 23 Afro-American, 39 Caucasian and 15 Hispanic women in lying, sitting and standing positions. A new shape, the pumpkin seed, was found in 40% of Afro-American women, but not in Caucasians or Hispanics. Analyses of cast and introital measurements revealed: (1) posterior cast length is significantly longer, anterior cast length is significantly shorter and cast width is significantly larger in Hispanics than in the other two groups and (2) the Caucasian introitus is significantly greater than that of the Afro-American subject.

Three types of packages containing enough sanitary supplies for one menstrual period were weighed and distributed to 100 subjects to determine adequacy of supplies and compliance to protocol. Returned packages were then reweighed to determine total menstrual loss. No subject used all the supplies in her package; therefore, packages contents were deemed ample. 7 subjects added their own purchased products to their packages; since added products were specified by name, weight corrections were easily made. 2 subjects lost unused supplies which were specified, and weight corrections were made accordingly. Evaporative loss from sealed and stored and frequently opened packages was measured. 100 g distilled water were added to contents inside 60 packages which were sealed and set aside 7 days. Average loss from these packages was 0.65 ± 0.57 g. 5 g water were added to 60 packages 4 times daily for 5 days (100 g total). Then packages were set aside for 2 days and weighed on day 7. Average loss from these packages was 1.25 ± 0.85 g. The combination of storage plus frequent opening resulted in an average loss of 1.90 ± 0.87 g. Thus, the direct-weight method permits recovery of 97–98% of sample.

A new procedure for studying the effect of various drugs on ovulation in vivo is described. In golden hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus), each ovary is enclosed within a complete bursa that is continuous with the oviduct. Drugs can be applied topically to ovaries by injection of a solution into a bursal cavity of an anesthetized hamster several hours before ovulation; the contralateral ovary serves as an in vivo control and receives no treatment. After ovulation, the number of ruptured follicles on experimental and control ovaries are compared. Data presented show that: (1) the operation and injection procedure per se do not affect ovulation; (2) normal saline is a suitable vehicle for administration of drugs by this route; (3) compounds with molecular weights of less than 1,000 daltons rapidly penetrate all layers of the follicle wall; (4) solutions injected into the bursal cavity 6 hours before ovulation remain there until ovulation. The advantages and limitations of this technique are discussed.