398 INANITION AND MALNUTRITION 



occurs only at a certain season or stage of the sex-cycle. As noted above, how- 

 ever, Ott ('24) found no increase in the weight of the ovaries in frogs kept 

 without food (beginning in the fall) throughout the hibernation period and 

 subsequently. 



In hibernating bats, Cesa-Bianchi ('07) observed an apparent decrease or 

 disappearance of the ovarian interstitial cells, with a redevelopment at the time 

 of awakening and during the subsequent summer period. Van der Stricht 

 ('12), in the bat, and Rasmussen ('18), in the woodchuck, found an enlargement 

 of the interstitial cells of the ovary during the winter hibernating period, 

 with a reduction to minimum size during the summer. Aschner ('14), on the 

 other hand, found in the hedgehog {Erinaceus europaeus) a marked reduction 

 in the fat-content of the ovarian interstitial gland during hibernation, with 

 recuperation in the spring; while Mann ('16) noted no specific change in the 

 structure of the sex glands of the gopher (Spermophilus tridecemlineatus) during 

 hibernation. 



(B) Effects of Partial Inanition on the Ovary 



Protein Deficiency. — Gaspard (182 1) described a famine edema in France 

 during 1817, due to subsistence on rough herbage, and probably involving pro- 

 tein deficiency. The menses ceased in many women, and conceptions were 

 reduced to half the normal number. 



Slonaker and Card ('18, '23a, '23b, '23c) found that albino rats on protein- 

 poor vegetarian diet showed in both sexes a delay in the age of puberty, and a 

 marked increase in sterility, so that by the third generation the line became 

 extinct. Animals still capable of reproduction were restored to nearly normal 

 conditions when placed on an omnivorous diet. 



Kraus ('19) and others have noted amenorrhea and sterility as accompanying 

 the edema from malnutrition during the world war. Rubner ('19, '20) ascribed 

 the "war amenorrhea" (above mentioned with effects of underfeeding) in 

 Germany to the great reduction in the protein content of the diet. It acts as a 

 protection against further loss through hemorrhage. He stated, however, that 

 it is also a question whether the formation of the ovum itself is normal. 



Reynolds and Macomber ('21, '21a) and Macomber ('23) found that in 

 albino rats the age of puberty is postponed and fertility greatly reduced by 

 various deficient diets, including deficiencies in calories (general underfeeding), 

 in vitamin A, or in protein and calcium. Certain peculiar conditions were 

 observed in the ovaries, notably follicles apparently containing four ova, possi- 

 bly due to premature segmentation. 



Recently Evans and Bishop ('22) have shown that the onset of puberty and 

 the ovulation rythm may be disturbed by protein deficiencies, as well as other 

 general or special dietary deficiencies. 



In pellagra (considered primarily due to protein deficiency), Raubitschek 

 ('15) stated that various inflammatory lesions occur in the female reproductive 

 tract, including the ovary and uterus. 



In experimental rickets in rats on diets with calcium deficiency, McCollum, 

 Simmonds, Shipley and Park ('21) noted that the gonads appeared atrophic. 



