Abstract
Summary
The ovaries were removed from 24 Wistar albino rats which averaged 26 days of age. An equal number of litter mate controls were used. All rats were kept under similar conditions and were killed and autopsied at 3 months of age. The endocrine glands were studied as well as certain other organs which showed some tendency to be changed in a 6-month group of spayed rats which were studied earlier in this laboratory. The vagina opened in the control rats at an average age of 42 days. The body weight of the spayed rats became significantly greater than that of the controls when they were between 6 and 7 weeks of age. In this group of rats the percentage difference in body weight between the spayed and controls constantly increased until 13 weeks of age when the difference was 20.5%. The spayed rats at 3 months of age had a significantly greater body length and tail length than the controls. The following parts were significantly heavier in the spayed rats : head, hypophysis, thyroid, thymus, lungs, heart, alimentary group, stomach, liver, spleen, and kidneys. These differences were all greater than those found at 6 months, which seemed to indicate that ovariectomized rats go through their growth changes more rapidly than controls. The suprarenals were significantly smaller in the spayed rats, but the difference was less than at 6 months.
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