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Androgen treatment during the first 10 postnatal days in female rats interferes with the normal differentiation of the anterior and/or preoptic hypothalamus leading to persistent vaginal cornification in the adult (Barraclough, 1961). Reiter (1967) has demonstrated that neonatally androgen-sterilized female rats which were later blinded exhibited a smear pattern of predominantly dioestrous phases: pinealectomizing these rats caused a reversal to a persistent vaginal oestrus, thus implicating the pineal in the control of gonadotrophin secretion in adult animals. However, the ability of steroid hormones given neonatally to affect adult reproductive function suggests the possibility that pineal substances might likewise be able to exert an effect when given neonatally or to interact with the effects of neonatal treatment with testosterone. Previous studies by Vaughan & Vaughan (1969) have shown that neonatal treatment with melatonin, a pineal amine, is effective in establishing irregular cyclicity in androgen-sterilized female rats. Since cyclic changes in pineal