1 68 INANITION AND MALNUTRITION 



decreased in both human and animal malnutrition. In the fasting frog, 

 Kunkel ('87) found a marked decrease in the diameter of the sartorius fibers, 

 but not in their number. The large range of normal variation in the size 

 of the muscle fibers makes comparison somewhat difficult. Frankl and Freund 

 ('84) held that the diminution in the volume of muscle during emaciation is due 

 only in part to decreased caliber of the atrophic fibers, the greater part of the 

 decrease being ascribed to actual disappearance of disintegrated fibers, the 

 interstitial connective persisting in increased amount. In the starved dog, 

 Morpurgo ('89b) found no decrease in the number of muscle fibers, and the 

 muscle nuclei undergo but slight atrophy. 



Statkewitsch ('94) studied the microscopic changes in the muscle and other 

 tissues during inanition in numerous animals (mammals, birds, reptiles and 

 amphibians), giving also a detailed review of the earlier literature. He found 

 that in general the skeletal muscle is affected earlier and more intensively than 

 smooth muscle. "Abgesehen von einer Abnahme der Grossenverhaltnisse 

 und einer Triibung treten in den quergestreiften Muskelfasern je nach der 

 Dauer des Hungerns Schwellung, kleinkornige und spaterhin auch grosskornige 

 Degeneration auf, wobei die quere, wie auch Langsstreifung nicht mehr beo- 

 bachtet werden kann." The degenerative changes appear first in the cervical 

 musculature, then (in order) in the extremity muscles, pectoralis major, heart, 

 rectus abdominis, and finally the smooth musculature. The granules are 

 albuminous; fatty granules (by ether or osmic tests) not being found during 

 inanition. Zenker's (waxy) degeneration is rare (found in 1 cat and 1 dog, 

 6-24 hours post mortem), and pigmentary degeneration was never observed. 

 Since the muscle fiber shrinks greatly, the nuclei appear more numerous, being 

 nearly unchanged in size. In extreme stages of inanition, nuclear degeneration 

 may occur. Very similar changes were found by Konstantinowitsch ('03) 

 in the muscle fibers of starved rabbits, lizards and frogs; and by Beeli ('08) in 

 cats, showing decrease in the average nuclear diameter. 



Athanasiu and Dragoin ('08) found no fat in the striated muscle fibers of 

 the summer frog, but a storage of large amounts in rows of interfibrillar granules 

 during the winter. Similarly Miescher ('80/97) observed fat droplets between 

 the myofibrillae of the muscle fibers in the superficial lateral trunk muscles of 

 the fasting salmon. Further details as to this fat storage were noted by Mahal- 

 anobis (Paton '98) and especially by Greene ('12, '12a, '13, '19) and Greene and 

 Greene ('14). Greene finds that in the Pacific salmon at the beginning of its 

 migratory fast the fat is stored chiefly in the muscles: (1) in the dark superficial 

 lateral trunk muscle, chiefly as large droplets within the fibers; (2) in the great 

 mass of pink muscle, with large quantities of fat, at first entirely interfibrous, in 

 droplets of variable size up to iooju; (3) in the smaller fin muscles, a slight amount 

 of fat, chiefly interfibrous. The stored fat is gradually consumed on the river 

 journey to the spawning grounds, but it is not completely exhausted even at 

 death. Chemical analysis indicates that the muscle also decreases markedly 

 in protein content, with slight loss in ash and increase in water content. 



Bell ('09, '10, '11, '12) made a careful study of the granules in muscle fibers 

 during inanition, finding that in the ox the " liposomes " (fatty or lipoidal granules 



