Evelyn Anderson c:^ n 



animals, Anderson, Jose])!! and Herring'' observed the growth rate and lood 

 consumption of adrenalectomized rats kept for several months in a staK ol 

 good health with sodium chloride. In this study, male rats, lo weeks of age 

 and weighing approximately 200 gm., were subjected to adrenalectomy. Of 

 twenty-five adrenalectomized rats given i.o per cent sodium chloride to drink, 

 fifteen survived on the average of 45 days (range 18-80 days) and ten lived be- 

 yond the 1 loth day (post-adrenalectomy). Eight of these animals were sacrificed 

 on the 176th day. The control group of adrenalectomized rats, five in number, 

 which were not given sodium chloride in their diinking water died between 

 the 14th and 31st days. 



During the first month after operation the adrenalectomized rats on salt 

 solution ate the same amount of food as the normal control rats, namely, be- 

 tween 12 and 16 gm. daily. The adrenalectomized rats when on tap w-ater in 

 place of salt solution ate 9 gm. of food daily until tw'o days before death, when 

 the food intake dropped sharply. The food intake was not measured after the 

 first month; however, it is evident that the amount consumed was virtually 

 the same in the salt-treated adrenalectomized rats and the normal controls 

 since the growth curves of the two groups w'ere almost parallel. The former 

 group of animals (six in number) gained an average of 260 gm. of body weight 

 in 5 months, the latter group (ten in all) 280 gm. 



The animals used in this study were tested for completeness of adrenalec- 

 tomy by withdrawing the salt solution. All promptly developed a state of 

 adrenal insufficiency in 24 to 48 hours as manifested by a striking decrease in 

 food intake and a loss of 10 to 20 gm. of body weight. It was found unsafe to 

 permit the animals to continue without salt solution for more than 48 hours. 

 At autopsy a block of tissue was removed from each adrenal site and serial 

 sections made. No adrenal tissue was found in any of the rats used in this series. 



In a recent report Grollman" has stated that "salt alone, e\en when atl- 

 ministered in optimal doses, fails to maintain the completely adrenalecto- 

 mized rat indefinitely." In a group of eighty rats in his series only two rats 

 survived more than one month. Since these findings are so strikingly divergent 

 from the several observations described above, one must assume that the con- 

 ditions of his experiments were different from those of all the rest. 



2. Salt Requirement in Adrenal Deficiency 



The importance of giving adecpiate amounts of sodium chloride in adrenal 

 insufficiency has been emphasized by Loeb'' and others. That there is an oj)- 

 timal level of sodium chloride intake is suggested by the following observations 

 of Anderson, Joseph and Herring.'' In three groups of rats the salt intake \\as 

 measured. One gioup of adrenalectomized rats was given taj) water and a 

 stock diet which provided about 340 mg. sodium chloride per rat dailv. A 

 second group was given 1.0 per cent sodiinn chloride solution to drink ad 

 libitum in addition to the salt in the stock diet. The daily intake amounird 10 

 940 mg. sodium chloride per rat. A third group, which received tap water ami 



