VII. EFFECTS OF DEFICIENCY 529 



coluiniis, dorsal lu-i-xc roots, and Nciitfal horn cells of the spinal coi'd and 

 stated (p. \'M in ret'. 71) that "... the muscular clian<>;es in many of the 

 animals, especially in tiie early sta<i;e of the affectioii, show .several points 

 of decided re.semblance to the picture of muscular dystrophy, i.e., a myog- 

 enous muscular atropliy. Gradually, as the tlisease in these animals is 

 progressing, however, the muscular changes increasingly assume the typi- 

 cal neurogenous appt^ai'ance so that finally the muscular features alone 

 would be evidence enough of the presence of an amyoti'ophic lateral sclei-o- 

 sis. ... On the other hand, we have not been able to exclude the existence 

 of a mixed picture, i.e., the possibility that the muscular changes may in 

 part be dystrophic and partly be due to the spinal changes." Similar con- 

 clusions were reached l\y ^Monnier.''* Although, in a study of comparable 

 material, some invt^stigators" have found no lesions of the nervous system, 

 others"'^ have observed demj^elinization and gliosis in the posterior col- 

 umns and dorsal nerve roots, but not the alterations in the ventral horn 

 cells antl pyramidal ti-acts described by Einarson and liingsted. In a recent 

 and detailed "criticizing review" of the literature on this subject, Einarson**" 

 admits that in their earlier report^^ there was overemphasis of "the myo- 

 pathogenetic significance of the spinal cell changes," and he expresses 

 the opinion that "vitamin E on the whole acts simultaneously on the mus- 

 culature and the ner\'ous system, due to some physico-chemical effects it 

 exerts in metabolism." Until there is better agreement regarding lesions 

 of ventral horn cells (see p. 533), it is impossible to say with certainty that 

 an atrophy of spinal origin is superimposed upon a true myopathy. 



Peripheral nerves and motor end plates are reported as normal in nutri- 

 tional myodegeneration of ducklings,^i guinea pigs, ^^^ ^-^ and young^*^ and 

 old'^ rats; but Telford*^ finds that loss of end plates, secondary to degenera- 

 tion of muscle fibers, occurs in young rats. Einarson and Ringsted"^ ob- 

 served some atrophic muscle spindles in dystrophic muscle of adult rats 

 which they imply may be related to alterations notcnl l)y them in ventral 

 root fibers. 



" A. Wolf and A. .M. Papijeulieimer, Arch. Xcurol. I'sychiul. 48, 538 (1942). 



'8 C. N. Luttrell and K. E. Mason, Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci. 52, 113 (1949). 



" X. Maliimud, M. M. Nelson, and H. M. Evans, Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci. 52, 135 (1949). 



»» L. Einarson, Acta Psychiat. et Neurol. Scand. Suppl. 78, 9 (1952). 



SI A. M. Pappenheimor, M. Goettsch, and K. Juiifihcrr, Shrrrs Agr. Expt. Sta. Bull. 



229 (1939). 

 82 W. M. Rogers, A. M. Pappenheimer, and .M. Goettsch, ,/. Exptl. Med. 54, 167 



(1931). 

 82a H. Chor and R. E. Dolkart, Arch. Pathol. 27, 497 (1939). 

 8' I. R. Telford, Anat. Record 81, 171 (1941). 



