266 Cc. M. JACKSON 
The suprarenal medulla is often considerably affected during 
acute inanition, though usually less so than is the cortex. The 
‘eytoplasm frequently becomes more vacuolated, although the 
characteristic (chromaffin?) granules persist in the parenchyma 
cells. The nuclei may become more hyperchromatic, and a 
larger proportion are pycnotic. In many cases the nuclei are 
hypochromatic, undergoing chromatolysis. Some areas of 
marked cellular degeneration occur. 
The chromaffin reaction is apparently but slightly Gf at all) 
affected by the inanition experiments. The slight variations in 
the intensity of the brown color are apparently no greater than 
appear in the normal controls. Even in the rat starved twelve 
days with loss of 45 per cent in body weight (F 5.2) the chromaffin 
reaction of the medulla appears fully as intense as in any of the 
controls. This rat was still active when killed, but the reaction 
persists in another (F 9.3) which was killed while very weak and 
near death with a loss of 33 per cent in body weight after ten 
days of acute inanition (fig. 10). . 
In only one case (F 6.2) is there a marked decrease, only traces 
of the chromaffin reaction being present. This was probably a 
postmortem change, as the rat was found dead. It had lost only 
34 per cent in body weight after seven days of inanition. It 
therefore appears that in adult rats acute inanition produces no 
appreciable decrease in the chromaffin reaction of the suprarenal 
medulla, even (aside from postmortem changes) in those starved 
to death. 
Adult chronic inanition. In six adult rats underfed thirty to 
thirty-five days with gradual loss in body weight amounting to 
33 to 38 per cent, the histological changes (in the ordinary prepa- 
rations) were found in general very similar to those after acute 
inanition (fig. 9). These include a general atrophy of cells and 
nuclei with a variable reduction in the amount of lipoids in the 
middle (but not in the outer) zone (fig. 9, O). There is similarly 
a pronounced cellular atrophy in the inner zone, and in one case 
(J 1.5, fig. 9, J) the vacuolated cytoplasm in a few places had ap- 
parently disintegrated to form extensive intercellular spaces, sim- 
ilar to the condition described in the human suprarenal by Meyer 
CZ): 
