204 INANITION AND MALNUTRITION 



observed among invertebrates; in Planaria by Schultz ('04), Stoppenbrink 

 ('05), Berninger ('n) and Lang ('12); in Lineus by Nusbaum and Oxner ('12); 

 in leeches by Cajal ('04a) ; and in Limax by Smallwood and Rogers ('08, '09, '10). 

 So far as known at present, we may therefore conclude that in general through- 

 out the animal kingdom the nervous tissue appears relatively resistant to 

 inanition although subject to degenerative changes, especially in the extreme 

 stages. 



(.4) Effects of Total Inanition, or on Water Only 



In man, but relatively few observations upon the peripheral nervous system 

 during inanition are available. Rokitansky ('54) held that the elements of 

 the nervous system are exempt from general atrophy, but Luciani ('89, '90) 

 believed the rapid decline toward the end of starvation to be due to disorganiza- 

 tion of the nervous system. The neurasthenia so frequently found during 

 undernourishment, as noted by Blanton ('19) in German school-children and by 

 Rubner ('19) in adults, is probably due primarily to central rather than periph- 

 eral nervous lesions. Blaschko ('83) did not find a primary degeneration in 

 the plexuses of Auerbach and Meissner during infantile intestinal atrophy, 

 although such degeneration is mentioned by Baginsky ('84). Meyer ('17) 

 found increased neuroglia with considereabl shrinkage and vacuolation of the 

 myelin in the nerve fibers of a cervical nerve root in a man who died of starvation. 



The observations upon the lower animals are more numerous. Carville 

 and Bochefontaine ('75) found the sciatic nerve fibers apparently normal in 2 

 dogs starved 27 days (on water only). Degenerative changes in the spinal 

 ganglion cells, more or less resembling those in the nerve cells of the brain and 

 cord, were found by Mankowski ('82), Rosenbach ('83, '84), Lugaro and Chiozzi 

 ('97), and Daddi ('98, '98a), as mentioned in Chapter X on the brain. Changes 

 observed by Barrows ('98) in spinal ganglion cells, and by Cajal ('04a) and 

 Dustin ('06) in the neurofibrillae of nerve cells in the leech were mentioned in 

 Chapter XI on the spinal cord. The observations by Riva ('05, '06, '07) on 

 the neurofibrillae and by Rasmussen ('19) on the mitochondria of spinal 

 ganglion cells during inanition were also mentioned in Chapter XL 



Microphotographs showing in general but slight changes in the spinal 

 ganglion cells of starved rabbits were published by Martinotti and Tirelli 

 ('01). A few cells show marked cytoplasmic and nuclear degeneration. 



Morat ('01) and Bonne ('01) discovered that the spinal ganglia of the frog 

 (species not stated) appear yellow in winter during hibernation, due to an 

 abundance of fat droplets of variable size in and around the ganglion cells. The 

 fat droplets appear to be derived from the capsule cells; they diminish when 

 the frog revives from torpor in the spring, and disappear completely in the 

 summer. 



Smallwood and Rogers ('n), as previously mentioned, found but little 

 change in the spinal cord of Necturus maculatus after 4 months of fasting, but 

 marked changes after 16 months. The reddish masses of fat associated with 

 the dorsal root ganglia disappear. The ganglion cells each contain an apparently 



