766 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. [Vol. 4J 



Cats were found to respond to the deficient diet witli the greatest regularity, 

 and are therefore considered best adapted for physiological studies of the 

 antineuritic vitamin. 



Vitamin studies. — IV, Antineuritic properties of certain physiological 

 stimulants, R. A. Butcher (Jour. Biol Chem., .U) (1919), No. 1, pp. 63-68).— 

 In continuation of the previously noted vitamin studies conducted at the Minne- 

 sota Experiment Station (E. S. R.. 40, p. 563), prelimnary work is reported on 

 an attempt to discover substances whose physiological action has been studied 

 which will bring about a physiological response in polyneuritic pigeons similar 

 to that of the vitamin extracts. 



The administration of thyroxin, desiccated thyroid gland, pilocarpin hydro- 

 chlorid, and tethelin apparently produced definite relief from paralytic symp- 

 toms in acute cases of avian polyneuritis, but in no case was the response as 

 rapid as when vitamin preparations were fed. This is thought to be due per- 

 haps to the fact that the vitamin preparations contain, in addition to the so- 

 called vitamin, phosphorus, sulphur, and organic compounds needed for tlie 

 repair and building of tissue. 



The study is being extended to other chemical substances. 



ANIMAL PRODUCTION. 



Experimental studies on g'rowth. — IX, The influence of tethelin upon the 

 early growth of the white mouse, T. B. Robertson and M. Delprat {Jour. 

 Biol. Chem., 31 (1911), No. 3, pp. 567-574, fig. 1). — This paper continues a series 

 of experimental studies (E. S. R., 36, p. 366), and summarizes the growth 

 records of 60 litters of white mice for the first 49 days after birth. 



Tethelin, a lipoid extracted from the anterior lobe of the pituitary body, was 

 fed to the mothers of one group of litters but was apparently not secreted by 

 the mammary gland, as no effect on growth was detected. When it was mixed 

 with the feed eaten by the young after their eyes had opened (at the age of 

 14 days), a marked acceleration of growth occurred during the period desig- 

 nated by Robei'tson as the second growth cycle (second to fifth week). This 

 was followed by a definite retardation during the third cycle, similar to that 

 found in Study IV (E. S. R., 35, p. 865), when tetheUn feeding was begun at 

 the end of the second cycle. The retardation occurred even though the admin- 

 istration of tethelin had been discontinued at the end of the fifth week. 



Experimental studies on growth, X-XIV, T. B. Robertson and L. A. Ray 

 (Jour. Biol. Chem., 37 (1919), No. 3, pp. 377-^63, figs. 2.5).— The five papers 

 listed below are added to this series t»f reports. Studies X, XI, and XIV 

 deal with the body weights of white mice at successive ages, and include tables 

 which give, by weeks to the age of 30 weelcs and fortnightly thereafter, 

 the following data for each group of experimental or normal (control) animals 

 considered: (1) The number weighed, (2) the average weight, (3) the dif- 

 ference between the latter and the average at the corresponding age of the 

 normal with which it is compared, (4) the ratio of this difference to its prob- 

 abl error, and (5) the percentage variability of the weights composing the 

 average. The average weights of each group are also presented graphically 

 as the ordinates of growth curves. 



X. TJie late growth and senescence of the normal white mouse, and the progres- 

 sive alteration of the normal growth curve due to inbreeding (pp. 377-391). — 

 Amplifying the growth records of Study II (E. S. R., 35, p. 864). the authors 

 fh-st summarize the complete series of weights of the two earliest groups of nor- 

 mals used in their experiments, the males and females born in July, 1914. The 

 records cover the ages from 4 to 150 weeks, i, e., until the death of all the mice. 



