OOPHORECTOMY AND THE SUPRARENALE 41 



women, but eunuchs have been found to possess thymus Hypertrophy 

 glands which have not undergone involution. after^Tphor- 



In experiments on cats I found the thymus rather ectomy. 

 larger after oophorectomy than in the normal adult 

 animal ; and on section the gland appeared to resemble 

 the normal organ in the active stage before puberty. 

 It is, however, extremely difficult to base definite 

 assertions on such foundations. The significance of 

 these points will be discussed later when the thymus 

 gland is considered in more detail. 



EFFECTS OF OOPHORECTOMY ON THE PINEAL 



I have myself made no observations concerning the 

 pineal gland after oophorectomy — indeed, very little 

 physiological work has been done in this connexion. 



In 1912 Biach and Hulles 1 published a paper in which 

 they gave the results of castration of male and female 

 kittens a few weeks old. The animals were kept sub- 

 sequently for periods of seven or eight months. These 

 investigators arrived at the conclusion that atrophy 

 of the pineal gland occurred in all cases. Other observers 

 have been unable to find changes in this organ in these 

 circumstances. 



Later I shall consider the effects on the genital 

 functions of pathological changes in the pineal. 



EFFECTS OF OOPHORECTOMY ON THE SUPRARENALS 



I have examined many suprarenals after oophorec- Hyperplasia 

 tomy in rabbits and cats, and have found that there after^ophor- 

 appears to be a definite increase in the reticulated portion ectomy. 

 of the cortex at the expense of the zona fasciculata. 

 What the interpretation of this is I cannot say, unless 

 it be that the removal of an antagonistic secretion allows 

 hypertrophy to occur in the part concerned. 



1 Biach, P., and E. Hulles, Wien. Klin. Woch., 1912, vol. xxv, 

 p. 373. 



