EFFECTS ON THE HEART AND BLOOD VESSELS 235 



in rabbits and dogs on dry food found that the heart undergoes relatively less 

 loss in weight than does the body, and retains its original water content (not 

 confirmed by Skoritschenko '83). Pernice and Scagliosi ('95a), in a dog 

 which died on a dry bread diet, found inflammatory changes in the heart, espe- 

 cially the endocardium. The perivascular connective tissue is thickened, rich 

 in nuclei and spindle cells. The cardiac muscle fibers appear pale, less distinctly 

 stainable and more homogeneous in appearance with indistinct striation. The 

 myonbrillae seem thinner and less closely packed; the nuclei numerous and some 

 showing mitosis. 



Durig ('01) observed that in frogs upon withdrawal of water from the body, 

 the organs lose unequally in weight. Excepting the brain, the heart loses less 

 than any of the other organs. Kudo ('21) found that in adult albino rats on 

 acute thirst experiments the heart lost 30.6 per cent in weight (body loss 36.1 

 per cent) ; while in chronic thirst experiments the heart lost 46.3 per cent (body 

 loss 52.4 per cent). In total inanition, the results were very similar to those in 

 chronic thirst (Table 9). In thirst experiments in which young albino rats 

 were held at constant body weight for various periods, Kudo ('21a) found that 

 the heart remains nearly constant in weight, with a slight increase (of doubtful 

 significance) in the longer periods (Table 10). 



(C) Effects of Inanition upon the Blood Vessels 



Numerous scattered observations are available concerning the effects of the 

 various types of inanition upon the blood vessels. 



Total Inanition (or on Water Only). — Chossat ('43) gave pigeons water only 

 until death with loss of about 40 per cent in body weight. He found an apparent 

 decrease of nearly 30 per cent in the weight of the great vessels, but considered 

 the result inconclusive on account of variability in the extent of removal of the 

 vessels. Bidder and Schmidt ('52) found an apparent loss of about 38 per 

 cent in the weight of the aorta and vena cava in a starved cat, with body loss 

 of about 50 per cent. Strelzoff ('64) observed an apparent atrophy of the capil- 

 laries in fasting rabbits and guinea pigs, especially in the small intestine, stomach 

 and pancreas; to a lesser extent in the liver, large intestine and muscles. The 

 nuclei of the capillary wall apparently undergo a fatty metamorphosis, and the 

 vessels finally disappear entirely. In starved rabbits and dogs, Mankowsky 

 ('82) found the vessels of the spinal cord unaffected, aside from endothelial 

 proliferation. On refeeding, a swelling of the endothelial nuclei of the cerebral 

 vessels was noted. Poljakoff ('88) noted that in the albino rat the blood capil- 

 lary plexus of the fat lobules undergoes atrophy together with the adipose tissue 

 during inanition. 



Trivus ('99) made a thorough study of the changes in the walls of ligated 

 arteries (femoral and common carotid) in rabbits and dogs fasting various 

 periods with losses in body weight up to 40 per cent. In general the vascular 

 wall shows a weak inflammatory reaction. Near the ligature the leukocytes 

 predominate over the cells of the granulation tissue; many eosinophile and 

 pigmented cells appear. The endothelium of the intima frequently thickens, 

 forming several layers of cells. In the tunica media, the cytoplasm and nuclei 



