Few laymen have ever heard of the golden hamsterbut they are likely to hear of it from now on. Thousands of hamsters are being raised in U.S., British and Canadian laboratories. The furry, golden-brown, short-tailed rodent is a serious rival to the guinea pig.
Laboratoiy workers consider the hamster's laboratory qualifications practically ideal: it is even more susceptible to human diseases than the guinea pig. The gestation period is the shortest known for a mammal15 days, 21 hours. It begins to mate by its 43rd day, bears its first litter at the age of two months. Thereafter, until the age of...