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Thomson & Fraser (1939) fed three groups of fourteen Greyface ewes on a diet of concentrates, turnips and hay in amounts which induced different weight changes during their pregnancy. The first group (Group I) was allowed just to maintain weight and strength, and gained about 3.6 kg. (8 lb.) while in lamb. The second group was fed ad lib. and gained about 22.7 kg. (jo lb.). The third group received the restricted diet until the last month of pregnancy, when ad lib. feeding commenced; the average weight gain was 9.1 kg. (20 lb.). The lambs of the second two groups were comparable in birth weight and general vitality, but those delivered by ewes on the restricted diet were more than I kg. lighter and 'were also lacking in vitality. Many of the lambs, particularly the twins, in Group I were so weak that they required assistance in suckling their dams or by bottle feeding.,. . Some of the ewes in this group had very little milk.' Wallace (1948) conducted somewhat similar, but much more intensive studies, on groups of half-bred or Suffolk ewes. His main findings were that the maternal plane of nutrition had a profound effect on the weight and development of the foetus; ewes on a diet which was restricted during the crucial period carried foetuses which were light and whose organs and tissues weighed less than those of foetuses of similar weights from well-fed mothers. He also showed that the level of the maternal diet determined the degree of udder development and milk yield, which was reflected in the subsequent growth of the lambs. Wallace's paper, which contains a wealth of detail, was unfortunately not available to us while our work was being planned and carried out, so that in certain respects the data now reported have not the advantage of being closely comparable with his in detail. Our purpose was to confirm and extend the earlier work of Thomson & Fraser (7939), with special reference to the problem of the vitality of lambs, and to consider the degree of individual variability within a fairly large flock of pregnant ewes. EXPERIMENTAL Hkbandry arrangements. The animals used were eighty-one Sutherlandshire Cheviot gimmers (14 years of age) mated with three rams of the same breed. Although they formed a reasonably ' even' commercial flock, they varied considerably in size, build and fatness. Their weights ranged from 35 to 52'7 kg. It has been shown (Baird, 1945) that in human beings maternal height and the birth weight of infants are correlated. Since there might be a similar size effect in sheep, the flock was randomly distributed in respect of size between two experimental groups and the three rams. The index of size used for this purpose was L x B, L being the length between the angle of the

The Premedical Honors College (PHC) is an eight-year, BS-MD program created in 1994 by Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) and The University of Texas-Pan American (UT-PA) to increase the number of physicians addressing the health care needs of underserved populations in Texas. The PHC targets South Texas, a 13-county, medically underserved area with a population that is 82% Hispanic. To date, the PHC has had 159 matriculants and 71 graduates, of whom 60 (84.5%) have matriculated into medical school. These results are significant considering that in 1996, only four students from all five South Texas colleges (combined enrollment of 30000 students) were accepted to medical school. An outcomes study comparing PHC matriculants with students of similar academic ability, ethnicity, and interest in medicine revealed that the odds of medical school matriculation were seven times higher for PHC students than for non-PHC students. The PHC's initial success has been acknowledged by the Texas legislature, which recently passed a bill to promote the PHC's replication. In addition, the number of PHC students-of whom 95% are Mexican American-who matriculate into medical school annually is significant nationally. In 2001, only 386 U.S. medical school matriculants (2.3% of all matriculants) were Mexican American; 17 of these students (4.4%) were PHC graduates. If current trends continue, the PHC could significantly expand the number of physicians serving minority and medically underserved populations in Texas and the nation. Also, the PHC provides an opportunity for research on programs designed to create pathways from high school to medical school.

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