I. Growth and Metabolism in Normal Infant Rhesus Monkeys (Macaca Mulatta)

LONG-TERM investigations designed to characterize the metabolic and endocrine features of growth and development in the human infant have been limited by a multiplicity of uncontrollable protean factors, included among which are heredity, a relatively slow rate of maturation, and our inability to prescribe the total environment of any child and his respective family. Use of primates other than man, while a recognizable escape from such limitations, has not been previously practicable due to the following considerations: (1) the need of a well-standardized primate colony on which sufficient growth and developmental data had been collected to warrant application of small numbers to such investigations; (2) the unavailability of techniques mandatory to successful management of member animals under experimental conditions; (3) the need for research tools, such as the application of tracer techniques and ultramicrochemical analyses, which were usually not within the practical domain of laboratories conducting such studies.

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