EFFECTS ON THE HEART AND BLOOD VESSELS 23 I 



Morpurgo ('89b) noted that in starved pigeons the cardiac muscle fibers 

 appear more or less degenerated. Measurements gave a decrease in average 

 diameter from 9.22/z (in controls) to 6.50/x in starvation, indicating a decrease of 

 about 50 per cent in volume. Heitz ('12) also found a marked reduction in 

 both length and breadth of the myocardial muscle fibers in fasting rabbits and 

 guinea pigs; likewise a decrease in nuclear size. 



Coen ('90) in fasting rabbits and kittens found the cardiac and other muscle 

 mostly well preserved, although some fibers appeared atrophic, with cloudy 

 swelling and loss of the characteristic cross-striation. Statkewitsch ('94) noted 

 granular, non-fatty degeneration in the cardiac muscle fibers of starved animals 

 (cats, dogs, rabbits, pigeons) ; and vacuolar (rarely fatty) degeneration of the 

 cells in the cardiac ganglia in a starved cat. Uspensky ('96) likewise described 

 vacuolar degeneration in the cells and nuclei of the cardiac ganglia in fasting 

 rabbits, although less marked than in other sympathetic ganglia. Kusmin 

 ('96) noted extravasations of blood in the myocardium of fasting rabbits and 

 guinea pigs during hyperthermia. 



In Myoxus, Vesperugo and Vespertilio, Baroncini and Beretta ('00, '00a) 

 found at the beginning of hibernation an enormous accumulation of fat in the 

 interfibrillar sarcoplasm of the cardiac muscle fibers. These fat droplets 

 decrease irregularly until by the end of hibernation the fibers are nearly or quite 

 fat-free. 



Konstantinowitsch ('03) in rabbits and Beeli ('08) in cats described during 

 starvation a decrease in the size of the cardiac muscle fibers, with a loss of the 

 cross-striation; the nuclei become small, irregular, and deeply staining. 



Bell ('11), like Knoll ('80), recognized in cardiac (also in skeletal) muscle 

 fine lipoidal granules, which are stainable with scarlet red, though not with osmic 

 acid; and hence previously confused with albuminous granules in many cases. 

 These "liposomes" he found markedly decreased in the cardiac muscle of 

 starved rats (Mus decutnanus) . Wegelin ('13) and Bullard ('12, '16) likewise 

 found a decided decrease or disappearance of fatty granules in the cardiac muscle 

 fibers of fasting albino rats. Bullard ('16), however, concluded that the ordi- 

 nary fatty granules are distinct from those containing phospholipins (lecithin, 

 etc.), the latter being largely unaffected by inanition. 



While a review of the chemical literature upon this problem is beyond the 

 scope of the present work, it may be noted that chemical analyses, such as 

 those of Rubov ('05) on dogs and Terroine ('20) on rabbit, dog and pigeon, 

 show in starvation no very marked decrease in the cardiac fats, either the phos- 

 pholipins or the neutral fats and fatty acids. The question therefore appears to 

 be still unsettled. 



(B) Effects of Partial Inanition 



The effects of partial inanition upon the heart will be considered under 

 deficiencies of protein (including malnutritional edema and pellagra); salts 

 (rickets) ; vitamins, including vitamin A, vitamin B (beriberi and polyneuritis) 

 and vitamin C (scurvy) ; and water. 



