attthor's abstract of this paper issued 

 by the bibliographic service, june 30 



METABOLIC ACTIVITY OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM 



III. ON THE AMOUNT OF NON-PROTEIN NITROGEN IN THE BRAIN 



OF ALBINO RATS DURING TWENTY-FOUR HOURS 



AFTER FEEDING 



SHIGEYUKI KOMINE 



The Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology 



THREE CHARTS 



Hatai ('17) found in the nervous system of adult albino rats 

 that the amount of non-protein nitrogen is surprisingly constant 

 if the rats are examined under uniform nutritional conditions. 

 It was thought interesting to determine whether or not there is a 

 variation in the amount of non-protein nitrogen in the brain 

 during the various stages of metabolism which occur in the 

 course of the twenty-four hours following feeding. Should such 

 variations be found, the study of them would throw some light 

 on the very intricate problem of the metabolism of the nerve 

 tissue. 



As a first step I have undertaken to determine, therefore, the 

 changes in the amount of non-protein nitrogen in the brain of 

 the albino rat at intervals during the twenty-four hours which 

 follow the last feeding, and the results so far obtained seem to 

 me sufficiently interesting to publish. 



MATERIAL 



Albino rats were used for this study. The rats, which are 

 usually fed at about 9 a.m., were removed after feeding into 

 another cage, and kept without food, excepting water, until the 

 following morning. The time during which the rats actually 

 experienced lack of food is then approximately twenty-four 

 hours. After twenty-four hours without food, the control rats 

 were killed and examined, while those belonging to the group 



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