GROWTH AFTER INANITION FOR VARIOUS PERIODS. 



21 



Proceedings of the American Association of Anatomists, New 

 Haven meeting, Dec., 1915 (Stewart, '16). 



ALTERNATE FASTING AND REFEEDING EXPERIMENTS. 

 The two litters utilized for the alternate fasting and refeeding 

 experiments included six rats (Table II.), of which three served 

 as the test animals, and three as the controls. The former were 

 frequently held at constant body weight for short periods (3-4 

 days), and abundantly fed during the intervening time. With 

 each repeated fast the body weight was held constant at a pro- 

 gressively higher level. 



TABLE II. 



THE GAIN IN BODY WEIGHT IN MALE RATS REFED AFTER BEING HELD AT A 

 CONSTANT BODY WEIGHT FOR SHORT REPEATED PERIODS, AS COMPARED 



WITH THE CONTROLS. 



For each litter the average daily increase in body weight 

 (Table II.), when growth was permitted was somewhat higher in 

 the test rats than in the controls. Thus the average final weight 

 of the controls, 249.3 grams, was nearly reached by the test rats 

 (average 246.0 grams), although the latter had a much shorter 

 period of actual growth. 



On the whole, therefore, the data show the growth of the test 

 rats after short periods of maintenance to be unusually rapid, 

 so they were able to overtake the controls. Seland ('88), 

 however, noted that rabbits and chicks enduring alternate short 

 periods of fasting and generous feeding, became even heavier 

 than the controls. Apparently he obtained a stimulation of 

 growth which enabled the test animals to exceed the controls. 



1 Controls. 



