Summary. The parathyroid status at birth is species-dependent. In some species, it has been suggested that in utero, high plasma calcium levels inhibit the parathyroid function before birth, but other unknown factors may be involved in this suppression. The maturity of the renal cortex adenyl-cyclase activity in the early postnatal period is also species-dependent, and the degree of renal immaturity is not sufficient to explain the postnatal increase in plasma phosphates. (Garel, 19696 ; (fig. 5) Calcitonin.Our group was one of the first to report high plasma CT levels in the newborn (Garel et al., 1973). Plasma CT levels are generally higher in newborns such as lambs (Garel, Care and Barlet, 1974), foals (Garel, Martin-Rosset and Barlet, 1975), calves and rats (Garel and Jullienne, 1977) than in the dams or adults. High CT levels were also reported in human newborns (Hesch et al., 1973 ;Samaan, Anderson and Adam-Mayne, 1975). Factors which control the high plasma CT level in the newborn are still poorly understood.In 15-day old calves, the lack of hypocalcemic response following the intravenous infusion of purified porcine CT (Barlet, 1968) or the hypercalcemic perfusion of the thyroid gland isolated in situ (Phillippo, Care and Hinde, 1969) (1970) found that the CT content of rat thyroid measured by bioassay did not change significantly with age after 30 days, although suckling animals had markedly lower thyroid CT contents. In suckling newborn rats, the plasma CT concentration was always significantly higher than the levels found in virgin female rats (Garel and Jullienne, 1977). Rat milk is rich in triglycerides ; since exogenous CT decreased plasma triglycerides in suckling newborn rats, soybean oil was used as a CT secretagogue. The triglyceride composition of the soybean oil resembles the triglyceride composition of rat milk. One hour after administration of soybean oil by force-feeding, the plasma CT level was significantly increased in the 2-hour old newborn rat (Garel and Jullienne, 1977). In a