SEASONAL RHYTHM IN THE MORPHOLOGY OF THE SUPRARENAL CORTEX IN WOMEN OF CHILD-BEARING AGE

SUMMARY 1. Suprarenal glands from forty-four women of child-bearing age who died by misadventure were divided into 'summer' and 'winter' groups, the summer group consisting of twenty-one from women who died in April\p=m-\September and the winter group of twenty-three from women who died in October\p=m-\March. 2. The widths and the nuclear densities of four cortical zones, the glomerulosa, the outer fasciculata, the inner fasciculata and the reticularis, were measured in each gland, and the data obtained for both summer and winter groups compared. 3. In the zona glomerulosa nuclear population was increased in summer, due to a significant increase in nuclear density. There was no significant change in the width of this zone. 4. In the outer zona fasciculata and in the zona reticularis there were no significant seasonal differences in width or in nuclear density. 5. In the inner zona fasciculata the nuclear population was considerably increased in summer, due to significant increases in both width and nuclear density. 6. The lipoid content appeared to be similar in summer and winter in each of the four zones. 7. It was suggested that the increase in nuclear population in the zona glomerulosa in summer might indicate an increase in output of sodium-retaining hormones which could account for the increase in water retention at that time of year, and that the increase in nuclear population in the inner zona fasciculata in summer was a manifestation of separate functioning of this region.