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Department of Biology, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53233, U.S.A.

(Received 23 November 1977)

Chronic exposure to a low ambient temperature delays the growth of secondary sexual structures and the appearance of sperm in the seminiferous tubules of the male rat (Nazian & Piacsek, 1977) without affecting the concentration of testosterone in the serum. Prolactin is known to promote the growth of these sexual organs (Moger & Geschwind, 1972; Negro-Vilar, Saad & McCann, 1977) and to be inhibited by acute exposure to cold (Mueller, Chen, Dibbet, Chen & Meites, 1974). The secretion of thyroxine (T₄) is stimulated by acute exposure to cold (Hefco, Krulick, Illner & Larsen, 1975) and may be capable of suppressing the secretion of gonadotrophins (La Rochelle & Freeman, 1974). It was of interest, therefore, to examine the concentrations of prolactin and T₄ in the serum of rats after chronic exposure to cold to determine if the effects