PARTIAL SYMPATHECTOMY AND INDUCTION OF PSEUDOPREGNANCY

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Abstract
Interruption of the sympathetic chains through lower abdominal sympathectomy in 18 rats or through ablation of the superior cervical sympathetic ganglia in 12 rats exerted a profound influence on the relative ease of inducing pseudopregnancy. Response to infertile copulation on the part of operated animals was uniformly positive. Response to mechanical (glass rod) stimulation of the cervical canals was negative. Electrical stimulation of the cervix also proved ineffective, although 24 normal controls almost invariably responded. A nervous mechanism is evidently operative in the artificial induction of pseudopregnancy in the rat [long dash]a mechanism which apparently is not needed to induce response to copulation; in this circumstance it is believed that the "psychic" factor (i.e., sexual excitement) acts vicariously in its stead. This factor would appear to be absent under experimental conditions of mechanical or electrical stimulation.

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