VIII. EFFKCTS OF DEFICIENCY IN ANIMALS 



271 



the capacity to synthesize the vitamin. The guinea pig has been the subject 

 of most of the experimental studies on the physiological and pathological 

 aspects of ascorbic acid deficiency. If young animals weighing approxi- 

 mately 300 g. arc placed on a diet completely devoid of ascorl)ic acid but 

 adequate in all other respects, they usually show a slight loss in weight 

 during the first few days l)ecause of the change in type of diet. This is fol- 

 lowed by a period of growth which usually continues until about the tenth 

 to sixteenth day, after which there is a rapid loss in weight associated with 



440 



410 - 



380 



350 - 



320 



290 - 



260 - 



230 - 



200 



12 18 



Time in days 



Fig. 1. Average weight curves of guinea pig.s on a scorbutigenic diet. (From Sher- 

 man and Smith. 26) 



the onset of the first symptoms of scurvy. Death usually occurs from about 

 the twenty-fifth to the twenty-eighth day, slightly later if the initial weight 

 of the animals was over 300 g. and earlier if appreciably under 300 g. 



Figure 1 .shows the curve representing the average weights of 10 guinea 

 pigs as obtained by Sherman ei al.,-^'^^ using the scorbutigenic diet which 

 they developed. 



The outstanding symptoms of scurvy in the guinea pig are hemorrhage 



" H. C. Sherman, V. K. LaMer, and H. L. Campbell, J. Ajh. Cheni. Soc. 44, 165 



(1922). 

 26 ri. C. Sherman and S. L. Smith, The Vitamins, p. 171. Chemical Catalog Co., 



New York, 1931. 



