194 INANITION AND MALNUTRITION 



horn cells are reduced to small structureless remnants or have totally 

 disappeared. The Marchi method also shows diffuse degeneration in the nerve 

 fibers of the white substance. 



In a man who died from starvation, atrophic changes were likewise found by 

 Meyer ('17) in the anterior horn cells. "The nuclei are small and frag- 

 mentation of some nuclei apparently has taken place in these cells, and consider- 

 able loss of material has occurred. Some of the cells are mere remnants and all 

 are surrounded by very wide clear zones. Clear areas are also scattered 

 throughout the gray substance." The fiber tracts of the cervical cord and a 

 dorsal nerve root "contain many more neuroglial cells than are normally present. 

 Considerable shrinkage and vacuolation of the myelin are present, and the cross 

 sections of the fibers are irregular in outline." 



In the human infant, Parrot ('68, '77) described as characteristic for athrep- 

 sia a steatosis (fatty degeneration) in the meninges and neuroglia of the spinal 

 cord, as previously mentioned for the brain. Thiemich ('00) found in the 

 spinal cord of atrophic infants by the Marchi method variably degenerative 

 changes in certain tracts, but no correlation of these lesions with clinical nervous 

 symptoms was evident. 



In adult animals, certain effects of inanition upon the structure of the 

 spinal cord were mentioned in the preceding chapter in connection with similar 

 changes in the brain, as observed by Mankowsky ('82), Rosenbach ('83, '84), 

 Lugaro and Chiozzi ('97), and Daddi ('98, '98a). Rosenbach found the degen- 

 erative changes more apparent in the nerve cells of the spinal cord than in the 

 brain cells; while Lugaro and Chiozzi and Daddi found the anterior horn cells 

 more resistant, especially with reference to the Nissl granules. 



Carville and Bochefontaine ('74, '75) noted congestion of the meninges, 

 brain and spinal cord in a starved dog. The fat around the spinal cord, like 

 the orbital, appears transformed into a gelatinous, amorphic mass. Schulz 

 ('84) maintained that the vacuoles described by Rosenbach in the nerve cells 

 during starvation are artefacts. 



Popow ('85) described marked changes in the spinal cord of starved rabbits 

 (total inanition), including proliferation of the neuroglia, congestion and 

 sometimes hemorrhage. The nerve cells show variable degenerative characters; 

 some atrophic, with scanty granular or homogeneous cytoplasm (the granular 

 sometimes more peripheral and the homogeneous circumnuclear), or even naked 

 nuclei. In other cases the nucleus appeared more active, with " Kernfiguren," 

 occasionally double or multiple (fragmented?) nuclei. 



Ochotin ('85, '86) studied rabbits subjected to various degrees of complete 

 or incomplete total inanition. In both types the changes appear greatest in 

 the lower and upper parts of the spinal cord. Congestion and hemorrhage are 

 conspicuous in the incomplete (chronic) inanition, but not in the complete. 

 In animals killed after loss of 10 to 13 per cent in body weight during complete 

 inanition, or 14-30 per cent during incomplete inanition, the nerve cells show 

 beginning degeneration with whitish appearance. In more advanced stages, 

 the cells show variable degenerative changes. Some are greatly enlarged, 

 with disintegrated or obliterated nuclei (sometimes multiple) and vacuolated, 



