414 INANITION AND MALNUTRITION 



weight, with an absolute decrease of 23 per cent during the 6 months of experi- 

 ment. In young rats on vitamin-free (polished rice) diets, Tsuji ('20) noted 

 atrophy of the testis and degeneration of the seminiferous tubules. 



Davis and Outhouse ('21) found the testis normal in most cases in rats on 

 diets deficient in vitamin A (producing xerophthalmia). Emmett and Peacock 

 ('22), however, noted atrophy of the testes in chickens on similar diets. Rey- 

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

 both sexes of rats is increased by diets deficient in vitamin A, as well as by 

 other deficiencies. Meyerstein ('22) noted hypoplasia of the seminiferous 

 epithelium and a relative increase of interstitial tissue in young white rats 

 on diets deficient in vitamins A and B. 



Vitamin B. — There is a large amount of evidence indicating that the testes 

 are especially susceptible to a dietary deficiency of vitamin B. Funk and 

 Douglas ('14) found evidences of degeneration in pigeons with experimental 

 beriberi, and Tasawa ('15) likewise observed atrophy of the testes in a large 

 number of chickens and pigeons on polished rice diet. The above mentioned 

 results of Tsuji ('20) and Myerstein ('22) in young rats may depend chiefly 

 upon vitamin B deficiency. 



Drummond ('18) similarly noted suppression of spermatogenesis in young 

 rats (black variety of Mus norvegicus) on diets deficient in vitamin B. Osborne 

 and Mendel ('18c) also found a lack of fertility in rats reared on similar diets: 

 " Twenty-five per cent of these animals ultimately reached a very large size 

 but all failed to breed when mated with rats raised on the yeast diets, and only 

 four proved fertile with rats raised on the ordinary 'mixed food' fed our stock 

 colony. Even changing the rats from yeast-vitamin diet to this stock diet 

 failed to render them fertile. Professor H. H. Donaldson kindly examined 

 the reproductive organs of these animals and reported that in the testes of the 

 four animals which he had examined he found no spermatozoa, no tubular 

 tissue, and an excess of interstitial tissue." 



Ezra Allen ('19) in similar rats received from Osborne and Mendel found 

 the testes one-half to two-thirds below the Wistar norm for weight. There 

 was a total degeneration of the germ cells (similar to that produced by alcoholi- 

 zation or X-ray exposure), but a persistence of the Sertoli cells in the form of 

 a syncytium, and also a large increase in the quantity of interstitial tissue. 

 Likewise Meyerstein ('22) reported specific atrophy of the gonads in albino 

 rats on diets of potato or rye flour, with restoration of normal conditions upon 

 the addition of vitamins A and B. 



In chickens on diets deficient in vitamin B, Houlbert ('19) found atrophy 

 of the testis with pigmentation of the interstitial cells and arrested sperma- 

 togenesis. Growth and development of the secondary sex characters (spurs, 

 comb and tail feathers) were also inhibited, but normal conditions were restored 

 upon the addition of the missing vitamin. Dutcher ('20) similarly found that 

 in white Leghorn cockerels on polished rice diet, the testes become very atrophic 

 (with maximum loss of 80 per cent), in some cases even without loss in body 

 weight. Upon removing one atrophic testis and adding green alfalfa to the 

 diet, the remaining testis approached normal. Atrophy of the testis in fowls, 



