LIFE PROCESSES IN CAPTIVE GRAY RATS 



during adult life, females grow at a more rapid rate during 

 early life. An acceleration in the growth rate of young fe- 

 males has been noted also in the guinea pig (Bessesen and 

 Carlson, '23), in the mouse (Gates, '25) and in the cat (Lati- 

 mer and Ibsen, '32), as well as in man (Baldwin, '14; Daven- 

 port, '26; Appleton, '28). 



TABLE 3 



Increase in the weight of the body with age for individuals in the twenty-first to 

 the twenty-fifth generation of captive gray rats 



Graphs in figure 1, constructed from data in tables 1 to 3, 

 indicate the changes in body weight with age in successive 

 generation groups of male rats and form a better basis for 

 discussion than do the data in tables 1 to 3. 



All graphs in figure 1 have approximately the same form, 

 but graph 1 runs at a relatively low level due, in part, to the 



