Plural of cortin; hormone-containing extracts or preparations from adrenal tissue.
From Latin cortex (bark) + -in (chemical suffix) + -s (plural). The plural form of early 20th-century endocrinological terminology.
Early pharmaceutical companies marketed 'cortin' extracts from slaughterhouse adrenal glands as miracle cures for everything from exhaustion to arthritis—some worked, some were just expensive placebos.
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