MODIFICATIONS IN THE FOETAL DEVELOP- 

 MENT OF THE RAT AFTER ADMINISTRATION 

 OF GROWTH HORMONE OR CORTISONE TO 

 THE MOTHER 



Herbert Tuchmann-Duplessis and 

 lucette mercier-parot 



Faculty of Medicine and Ecole Normale Superieure, University of Paris 



"The art of living," said the Greeks, "consists in dying 

 young, but as late as possible." This, surely, is the goal that 

 gerontology has set for itself. 



When one considers the problem of ageing, which is among 

 the most fascinating for the biologist, one question at once 

 arises: are the development, functioning and evolution of 

 the organs in the course of life unalterably fixed by heredity 

 or do they also depend to a certain extent on internal and 

 external factors over which we may have some influence? 

 The second alternative is the more probable, if not the more 

 desirable. The increase in longevity which we have witnessed 

 constitutes an encouraging argument in this respect. 



For the past century it has been affirmed that the endocrine 

 glands are capable of delaying or hastening ageing, and it is 

 this idea that has been the basis of hormone therapy and 

 the great advances in endocrinology. If the over-optimistic 

 theories of the early workers in endocrinology have unfortu- 

 nately not proved correct, it is nevertheless probable that the 

 endocrine balance does play an important part in the growth, 

 functioning and ageing of the organs. 



Numerous authors have carefully analysed the morpho- 

 logical processes in the ageing of the endocrine glands. 

 Loeb (1941), who has made a very detailed study, has de- 

 scribed the progressive modification of the different endocrine 

 glands with age; he has also shown that depending on the 



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