192 INANITION AND MALNUTRITION 



lateral columns, with associated sclerosis, due to proliferation of the neuroglia. 

 Ependymal proliferation often obliterates the central canal. In beriberi and 

 scurvy, the changes in the cord are slight, but in aqueous inanition (thirst) the 

 degenerative changes, like those in pellagra, are markedly intensive. The 

 structural changes found during the various types of inanition are not specific, 

 but resemble those produced by various toxic agents and other abnormal 

 conditions. 



(A) Effects of Total Inanition, or on Water Only 



These effects will be considered under (1) changes in weight and (2) changes 

 in structure. 



1. Changes in Weight. — For the changes in weight of the human spinal 

 cord during inanition, no data have been found in the literature. In 4 cases 

 observed by me, in which the spinal cord was weighed in atrophic infants (see 

 Table 3), there appears to have been little if any loss in weight in this organ; 

 but conclusions are uncertain on account of the small number of cases and the 

 lack of an adequate norm for comparison. 



In Adult Animals. — Chossat ('43) found in starved pigeons an apparent 

 decrease in average weight of the spinal cord from 0.83 g. to 0.77 g. or a 

 loss of 7.2 per cent (body loss about 40 per cent). In 3 marmots hibernating 

 about 166 days, with average loss of 35.5 per cent in body weight, Valentin 

 ('57) noted an apparent decrease of only about 3 per cent in the weight of the 

 spinal cord. Voit ('66) observed an apparent loss of about 3 per cent in the 

 combined weight of brain and cord in a cat starved with loss of 33 per cent in 

 body weight. Manassein ('68, '69) found the average weight of the spinal 

 cord practically unchanged in 11 adult rabbits starved with loss of about 39 per 

 cent in body weight. In a normal control dog of 15.4 kilograms body weight, 

 studied by Voit ('94), the spinal cord weighed 22.6 g. while in a test dog 

 reduced by starvation from 17.4 to 11.78 kilos the spinal cord weighed 23.5 g. 



In 4 groups of guinea pigs (10 in each group) on total inanition with average 

 losses of 10, 20, 30 and 35.5 per cent in body weight, Lazareff ('95) found an 

 apparent increase of 1.05 per cent in the average weight of the spinal cord in the 

 first group, and losses of 6.82 per cent in each of the other 3 groups (Table 5). 

 Sedlmair ('99) apparently obtained a slight increase in the weight of the spinal 

 cord in 2 starved cats, but the difference of initial body weights in comparison 

 with the control makes conclusions uncertain. Jackson ('15) found the 

 average weight of the spinal cord practically unchanged in adult albino rats in 

 the acute inanition series (on water only), with loss of 33 per cent in body weight; 

 while in the chronic (incomplete total) inanition series, with loss of 36 per cent 

 in body weight, there is an apparent average loss of 4 per cent in the weight of 

 the spinal cord. Ott ('24) observed in frogs but slight loss in the weight of the 

 spinal cord during hibernation and with losses in body weight up to 40 per cent. 

 With losses of 50 and 60 per cent, however, there was an apparent loss of 14 and 

 25 per cent, respectively, in the male frogs (Table 6). In general, therefore, as 

 in the brain, there is little or no loss in the weight of the spinal cord during 

 starvation, excepting extreme stages. 



