412 INANITION AND MALNUTRITION 



an adult seminiferous tubule, and Fig. 103 the effect of acute inanition in an 

 adult albino rat. 



The claim of Champy ('21) to have reduced male Triton alpestris by star- 

 vation to a sexually neutral condition, with transformation to a female in one 

 case upon refeeding, was mentioned in Chapter XXIV. 



Okuneff ('22) found no change of the lipoidal substance in the interstitial 

 cells of Leydig or in the Sertoli cells of the testis in fasting rabbits (confirming 

 Traina). Later ('23) he reported that the seminiferous epithelium and the 

 interstitial cells remain unchanged in all respects, including their mitochondria 

 (chondriosomes) . 



Stieve ('22) discovered that the male goose (gander) loses about one-fourth 

 in body weight during the period just preceding and at the breeding season. 

 "Die dem Gesamtorganismus entzogenen Substanzen werden offenbar zum 

 Aufbau der Keimzellen verwendet." If this interpretation be correct, the 

 phenomenon is evidently comparable to that during the migration of the fasting 

 salmon. The case of the male fur-seal (cited in Chapter IV) perhaps belongs 

 in the same category. 



In the leopard frog {Rana pipiens) during hibernation and subsequent 

 inanition with losses of 10-60 per cent in body weight, Ott ('24) found a 

 slight loss (7 per cent) in the average weight of the testes during hibernation. 

 Thereafter the loss in testis weight ran roughly parallel with the body weight. 

 In the late stages, the loss in the testis appeared relatively greater, reaching 

 89 per cent in the group with loss of 60 per cent in body weight (Table 6). 



Hibernation and Seasonal Changes. — The case of the migration of the 

 salmon up the rivers to the spawning grounds (Miescher '80, '97; Stone '97; 

 Paton '98; Greene '10) has already been mentioned in previous chapters. Dur- 

 ing this fasting period of several months the testes and ovaries develop enor- 

 mously at the expense of the remainder of the organism, especially the trunk 

 musculature. Somewhat comparable phenomena in the gander and the fur- 

 seal were mentioned above. 



In the frog, regular seasonal changes in weight and structure of the testis 

 have been described by Ploetz ('90) and Gaule ('93) for Rana temporaria and 

 Rana fusca. Nussbaum ('06, '06a) described the conditions in Rana fusca, 

 also in Triton. Ploetz and Nussbaum found the maximum size of the frog 

 testis in August, the minimum in the spring. Athanasiu and Dragoin ('08) 

 described an infiltration of fat in the basal cells of the seminiferous tubules 

 (also some intertubular) in winter frogs. As emphasized by Nussbaum and 

 Gerhartz, the effects of inanition upon the testes vary greatly according to 

 the time at which it occurs, especially in forms undergoing seasonal changes. 



The work of Ganfini ('02) on the interestitial cells of hibernating animals 

 was inaccessible. 



Mann ('16) found no specific changes in the sex glands of the gopher (Sper- 

 mophilus tridecemlineatus) during hibernation. Hansemann ('96, '98) found 

 that spermatogenesis ceases in the hibernating marmot, and that the interstitial 

 cells almost entirely disappear. Rasmussen ('17 'i 8) found cyclic changes in the 

 interstitial cells of the ovary and testis of the woodchuck {Marmota monax), 



