Note on the influence of castration on the weight of the brain and spinal cord in the albino rat and on the percentage of water in them / Henry H. Donaldson and S. Hatai.

  • Donaldson, Henry Herbert, 1857-1938.
Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Note on the influence of castration on the weight of the brain and spinal cord in the albino rat and on the percentage of water in them / Henry H. Donaldson and S. Hatai. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    \ BRAIN SPINAL CORD Body length 194 mm. Body length 192 mm. Excess of observed values in controls... Excess of observed values in castrated.. per cent. 7.6 3.7 per cent. 17.5 12.3 Deficiency in the castrated group 3.9 5.2 In this second group the deficiency in the weight of the brain and spinal cord is a trifle less than that found in group 1, but still of the same order. Again the percentage of water in the brain and in the spinal cord appears to be unmodified by castration. In both the foregoing groups the percentages of water are unusually low for the age of the animals. For this there is no explanation at present. Whatever the cause, however, there is every reason to believe that the conditions were alike for both the castrated and the controls during this determination, and hence the relative values of the results have not been disturbed. In 1908 one series of (4) castrated rats with which Dr. Stot- senburg (’08) was working in this laboratory, together with the (4) controls, became infected with pneumonia and were killed. The severity of the infection was not recorded. These were exam- ined for the weight of the braiu and spinal cord and for the per- centage of water in both of these organs. The control in each case was from the same litter as the castrated. The data are given below in table 3. TABLE 3 Both groups with pneumonia BODY BODY BRAIN CORD PERCENTAGE OF WATER LITTER WEIGHT LENGTH WEIGHT WEIGHT BRAIN CORD DAYS Castrated I 107.1 180 1.7497 .5071 77.411 68.823 259 II 147.8 186 1.7770 .5673 77.901 69.381 264 Ill 146.1 183 1.7560 .5063 78.598 70.867 270 IV 172.5 205 1.8225 .6132 77.860 69.635 351 Averages. 143.4 188 1.7763 .5485 77.942 69.677 286