Correspondence MDICAL JOURNAL 309 injected to pregnant rats. No cardiovascular abnormalities were produced, but anophthalmia occurred in some of the test foetuses. In addition abnormalities of the central nervous system were produced. The net incidence of malformations in this series was similar to that occurring in my own. In view of the work of Robson and his co-workers,' who have demonstrated abnormalities in the rodent placenta following the administration of 5H.T., it is tempting to

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... the possibility that microphthalmia and other abnormalities in the derivatives of the neural ectoderm in these animals could be related to anoxia. This possibility is supported by the findings of Brent and Franklin,4 who clamped the uterine vessels for up to three hours on the ninth day of gestation of the rat. On the twenty-first day the abnormalities observed were microphthalmia, renal aplasia and agenesis, anencephaly, and hydrocephalus.-I am, etc., MARY J. SELLER.