THE INFLUENCE OF SUPRARENAL CORTEX AND MEDULLA ON THE GROWTH AND MATURITY OF YOUNG (WHITE LEGHORN) CHICKS

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Abstract
Fifty white leghorn chicks, 12 days old were divided into 3 lots and placed under experiment for 11 weeks. All received the basic diet. One lot served as controls, each animal of another lot received daily 1/2 grain of desiccated suprarenal cortex in capsule form and each animal of the other lot received 1/2 grain of suprarenal medulla. Chicks fed desiccated suprarenal medulla grew almost as well as controls for the 3 weeks but after that much more slowly. The feeding of suprarenal cortex at first inhibited growth but later growth was resumed and at the end of the experiment the weight was almost equal to that of the controls. Maturity, as shown by the average weight of the testes, was greater in cortex fed and retarded in medulla fed chicks, the average weights being: control 0.2000 gm., medulla 0.1242 gm., and cortex 0.2171 gm.