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Experimental work on abnormal conditions of incubation in the chick has been undertaken to acquire a scientific approach to malformations. More precise experiments on causing abnormalities had a common origin with experimental embryology. Progress in experimental teratology during the last 50 years is reviewed in a commentary on the 4 principles formulated by Stockard in 1921. The results of cytogenetical studies in man and in other organisms have led to the tracing of some relationships between them. Present knowledge concerning malformations of the neural tube, originating either experimentally, spontaneously, or phenotypically, has been presented and the teratological implications of some recent theories on the expression of the genotype are discussed in particular reference to problems of hormones as teratogens, the implication of carbohydrate metabolism, and teratogenesis. It is speculated that teratogenesis is possibly related to cationic balance in early development and that 1 factor retarding progress in the understanding of malformations is the tendency toward the development of teratology in an adequately close relationship with other branches of cell biology.

Postnatal maturation of nonmyelinated fiber bundles (Schwann bundles) was studied in the sciatic nerves of Snell's dwarf mice. The homozygous recessive of this strain has been previously shown to be characterized by multiple pituitary hormone deficiencies and secondary hypothyroidism. In the normal littermates a reduction occurred between 10 and 14 days in the number of fibers per fascicle, or subdivision, of each Schwann bundle, and by 26 days nearly all of the axons were separately embedded in cytoplasmic furrows of their associated Schwann cells. Only a few large fascicles were seen in normal sciatic nerve specimens at 26 and 50–53 days. In contrast, fiber bundle fascicles in the mutant nerves were still represented, even at 50–53 days, by numerous tightly-packed axons, as seen in the immature nerves at 10–12 days post-partum. On the basis of the dwarf's physiological background, these results suggest an involvement of the endocrine system during later stages of peripheral nerve maturation. The possible mechanisms affected by postnatal endocrine deficiency and thereby leading to delayed segregation of nonmyelinated fibers within Schwann bundles are discussed.