EXPERIMENTAL MODIFICATION OF THE ACCESSORY SEXUAL APPARATUS IN THE HEN

¹ Institute of Animal Genetics, University of Edinburgh

1. Peculiarities of form and function in the accessory sexual apparatus of a number of experimental pullets, derived from eggs injected with strone at an early stage of incubation, are described and discussed.

2. Only one of a group of 6 females laid normal eggs when sexually mature, the remainder producing eggs devoid of shell or lacking both shell and egg membranes. This phenomenon is ascribed to an abnormality of the oviduct.

3. All the experimental birds autopsied possessed two oviducts which showed incomplete development both as regards total length and length of component parts.

4. The total weight of the two ducts approximated that of the single left oviduct in the normal hen.

5. It is suggested that either the strone injection to the egg interfered with the normal processes of differentiation of the mullerian duct into the sex duct in the embryo, rendering it incapable of efficient response to the hormone stimulus subsequently supplied by the functional ovary of the individual, or that the normal level of secretion of female hormone by the fowl's ovary is sufficient only for the complete development of a single duct.