A STUDY OF THE MECHANISM WHEREBY COITUS EXCITES THE OVULATION-PRODUCING ACTIVITY OF THE RABBIT'S PITUITARY

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Abstract
Complete removal of the sympathetic chains failed to abolish or even to alter in any significant way the occurrence of ovulation following coitus in the rabbit. After severance of the pituitary stalk 18 rabbits failed to ovulate though they mated frequently. Ag impregnation techniques of Ranson, Bodian and others revealed a few nerve fibers in the ant. lobes of the normal rabbits studied. These fibers appeared to enter the gland from the stalk. They were present after removal of the sympathetic ganglia which supply post-ganglionic fibers to the head but were never found after complete stalk transection. The pituitaries of the animals with transected stalks showed certain histological and circulatory abnormalities. Chief among these were the long cyto-plasmic processes of the eosinophils. 7 rabbits with partially transected stalks ovulated only after many matings within a brief period of time. The circulatory and histological changes in the pituitaries of some of these animals were apparently as great as those found after complete stalk transection. A few fibers were present in the pars anterior, pars intermedia and pars posterior. It is quite possible that these fibers mediated the ovulation-producing activation of the ant. lobe following coitus.

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