PEDIATRICIANS are familiar with the fact that the skeletal age of sexually prex‘ cocious children is frequently advanced beyond the normal for their cnronc logical age. This fact is determined by comparing the number, siz;e and shape of the centers of ossification and the bones of the extremities with normal standards. It has been suggested that the sex hormones may be responsible for the precocious bone development. There is, however, little experimental evidence to support this thesis. The present investigation was undertaken in an attempt to determine whether estrogen has any influence on the rate at which the skeletons of immature rats develop. park and Dawson1 have described the order and time of appearance of the centers of ossification in the fore and hind limbs of the albino rat. Their data show that the number of centers increases with age in a reasonably consistent manner during the first month of life.
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Nathan B. Talbot (1939) studied this question.