190 INANITION AND MALNUTRITION 



weight on a dry barley diet. In a dog with loss of 20 per cent in body weight 

 after 4 weeks on dry food, Falck and Scheffer ('54) found an apparent gain of 7.2 

 per cent in the weight of the brain, in comparison with a control; but the water 

 content remained normal. Bowin ('80), in rabbits and dogs on a dry diet with 

 marked loss in body weight, apparently obtained an increase in the relative 

 weight and the water content of the brain, but the exact data are lacking in the 

 abstract by Muhlmann. 



Pernice and Scagliosi ('95, '95a) studied the effects of a dry diet upon a dog 

 and 3 half-grown chicks, which died with loss of 24-41 per cent in body weight. 

 In the dog, the meninges and brain were strongly congested. The various 

 layers of nerve cells and fibers in the cerebral cortex in general appear cloudy, 

 poorly staining with carmine, and often distinctly atrophic. The fibers stain 

 poorly by the Pal-Weigert method. The cerebellum also appears markedly 

 hyperemic, with degenerative changes especially in the superficial molecular and 

 the Purkinje cell layers. In the chicks, somewhat similar changes were found. 

 Atrophy and cloudy degeneration are especially evident in the large pyramidal 

 cells. Similar atrophic and degenerative changes appear in the cells of the 

 cerebellar cortex and in the gray substance of the medulla oblongata. 



The effects of a dry diet upon the brain weight in albino rats were noted by 

 Kudo ('21, '21a), as shown in Tables 9 and 10. The brain was often found 

 markedly congested, especially in the adult. In the adult acute thirst series, 

 with average loss of 33 per cent in body weight, the brain weight remains 

 unchanged; while in the chronic thirst series, with loss of 52 per cent in body 

 weight, the average loss in brain weight is 4.2 per cent. In young albino rats 

 held at nearly constant weight on relatively dry diets from one month of age for 

 various periods (up to 13 weeks), the brain weight shows no significant change. 



