THE PARS BUCCALIS OF THE HYPOPHYSIS 99 



The fat-organ 



Attention is called to the fat-organ, a structure which serves 

 as a fat storehouse and as such is subject in the adult frog to 

 seasonal and nutritional variations (Gaupp), since the behavior 

 of this 'organ' in the tadpole suffering from hypophysial de- 

 ficiency strongly simulates the behavior of the adipose tissue 

 in the mammal suffering from hypopituitarism. The normal 

 tadpole completing metamorphosis retains but a vestige of the 

 former robust organ. Similarly, the fat-organ of a thyroidec- 

 tomized tadpole subjected to inanition, or metamorphosed by 

 thyroid administration, is greatly decreased in size. This is not 

 the case with the albino (fig. 60). After prolonged starvation 

 no decrease in the large size attained by this organ in these 

 specimens is evident. In the 'partial' albino, too, although 

 the animal undergoes a prolonged metamorphic period, this 

 organ appears not to be reduced in size, though the nutritional 

 needs of such an animal must be extreme. This was well shown 

 by the two specimens of figure 53. The partial albino, the most 

 emaciated of the two, had an immense fat-organ; indeed, the 

 fat-organ and the kidneys were the major abdominal structures. 

 This 'organ' in the other specimen, however, a normal, was 

 scarcely recognizable. The large size and persistency of this 

 structure in the tadpoles suffering from a complete or partial 

 ablation of the epithelial component of the pituitary, appears 

 not to be unlike the adiposity exhibited by the mammal after 

 partial hypophysectomy (adipositas universalis, Gushing) or in 

 the human subject suffering from hypopituitarism. These ani- 

 mals thus furnish abundant testimony of the disturbance in fat 

 metabolism brought about by these conditions and indicate that 

 even under the extreme exigencies of inanition the utilization 

 of the fat is impossible. 



