The object of this investigation was to determine the effects of an exclusive ox-flesh diet on the development of the male reproductive organs of rats. Three series of observations were made as follows: -

(a) A series of eight rats which were first on an exclusive ox-flesh diet for periods ranging from two to six months, the diet being commenced when the animals were weaned; eight rats from the same litters were employed as control - bread-and-milk-fed - subjects. (The female rats, which were kept in the same hutches as the meat-fed males, were sterile, whereas all the controls bore young).

(6) Four rats fed on an exclusive ox-flesh diet for periods ranging from five to nine months, the diet being commenced when the animals were about two and a half months old, with eight controls.

(c) Five adult rats fed on an exclusive horse-flesh diet for five months.

In series (a) the reproductive organs were much less developed in the meat-fed subjects than in the controls. The defective development is most pronounced in the seminal vesicles and prostate gland (see Fig. 10).

In series (b) and (c) the testicles, prostate gland, and seminal vesicles are slightly less than in the control animals.

These results show that an excessive meat diet interferes with the development of the male reproductive organs, and that this arrest of development is most pronounced in the case of animals fed on a meat diet since weaning.

1 C. 13. Paul, F.R.C.S., Journal of Physiology, vol. xxxiv.