Further Experiments on the Grafted Eye and the Regeneration of the Lens in Amphibians

Abstract

EXPERIMEXTS O N AMPHIBIAN EYESwere normal in weight and miscroscopic appearance. The reproductive organs of the males receiving oestrone showed the same marked damage that occurs in the intact male treated in a similar fashion. The testes were markedly atrophied and the accessories were very small.The effectiveness of oestrone in preventing and correcting the changes which occur in the hypophysis following thyroidectomy is similar to its action on the changes that follow castration and appears to be evidence against the idea that the basophiles which react to the 2 operations represent 2 different cell types. It seems probable that there is only one type of basophilic cell in the anterior hypophysis. This cell in different phases of its secretory cycle may react to castration in one fashion and to thyroidectomy in a slightly different manner.These studies are another part of a series of investigations which have already been ~eportedl-~ on the grafted vertebrate eye. The present one is based upon results obtained in 262 operated eyes in an adult salamander, Triturus rriridescens. In 110 cases the eye was excised and reimplanted in its orbit, i. e., replaced in its normal environment. In 90 cases the lens was removed through an incision made in the cornea. In 62 cases the main blood vessels leading to the eye were severed either along with or without the optic nerve. In a majority of animals the eyes and lenses were measured and dissected in the fresh state.When the eye is reimplanted there is some reduction in its size followed by a degree of recovery. Careful measurements of the fresh eye show that up to 365 days there is no complete recovery.