Nuffield Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Oxford, John Radcliffe Hospital, Headington, Oxford, 0X3 9DU (Received 21 July 1978) It now seems likely that prostaglandins play an important role in the mechanisms of parturition in many species (Flint & Hillier, 1976; Thorburn, Challis & Robinson, 1977), including the goat (Thorburn, Nicol, Bassett, Shutt & Cox, 1972; Currie & Thorburn, 1977). This evidence has been further strengthened by the demonstration of the production of prostaglandins in vitro by uterine tissues from goats during late pregnancy (Mitchell, Flint, Robinson & Thorburn, 1978b). The recent discovery of prostacyclin (Moncada, Gryglewski, Bunting & Vane, 1976) has added a new dimension to prostaglandin research since in some biological systems it has a greater potency than other prostaglandins (Moncada et al. 1976; Omini, Moncada & Vane, 1977). Prostacyclin is highly unstable in aqueous media and degrades spontaneously to 6-oxo-prostaglandin F1α (6-oxo-PGF1α; Johnson, Morton, Kinner, Gorman,