Adrenal Cortex Differences in Male and Female Mice

Abstract

THE letter from Miss Deanesly published in NATURE of January 8, and dealing with the adrenal of the mouse, contains several inaccuracies. I feel bound to correct one which is not open to argument. Miss Deanesly gives what purports to be a brief account of the relevant literature. She has omitted to include a paper published six months ago by Dr. E. S. Horning and myself¹, which records observations having an important bearing on the subject under discussion. This paper contains a section entitled “The So-called X-zone and its Significance‘, to which readers of NATURE interested in the subject are referred. The warning given therein, that the adrenals of mice of inbred strains may show abnormalities and should, therefore, not be used for the interpretation of histological changes in the adrenal of normal mice, has unfortunately not been heeded by Miss Deanesly. The paper also points out the inadequacy of the histological methods used by other workers, including Miss Deanesly, in the study of the adrenal gland of the mouse.