104 C, M. JACKSON 



If Hatai's ('13) curve be taken as the normal, in absolute 

 weight the kidneys would apparentlj^ decrease from about 2.04 

 to 1.520 grams (a loss of 25.5 per cent) during acute inanition; 

 and from 1.80 to 1.317 grams (a loss of 26.8 per cent) in the 

 chronic inanition series. If my data indicating a higher normal 

 were taken, the loss would be correspondingly greater. 



Considering the importance of the kidneys, there is in the 

 literature a surprising lack of data concerning their weight dur- 

 ing inanition. That they lose in weight relatively somewhat 

 less than the body as a whole (thus gaining in percentage weight) 

 is indicated in the pigeon (Chossat '43), cat (Voit '66) and dog 

 (Falck '54). There appears also a slight relative increase in 

 the kidney weight of thin steers compared with fat (data from 

 Missouri Agricultural Experiment Station) . On the other hand, 

 Sedlmair's ('99) data for starved cats indicate no change in 

 relative (percentage) weight in one case and a slight decrease in 

 another. 



GONADS 



a. Female. The two observations recorded for the weight of 

 the ovaries, 0.051 per cent and 0.033 per cent of the body weight 

 are both above the normal average (0.025 per cent), but are of 

 course entirel}^ too few to be significant. 



h. Male. At the age of one year (body weight, 210 grams) 

 the normal testes and epididymi form an average of about 1.20 

 per cent of the body weight, of which approximately one-fourth 

 (0.30 per cent) belongs to the epididymi, and three-fourths (0.90 

 per cent) to the testis (Jackson '13). Hatai's ('13) data would 

 put the testis a little higher (about 1.05 per cent). In the acute 

 inanition series (table 3) the average relative weight for the 

 testes is 1.12 per cent, and for the epididymi is 0.39 per cent 

 of the body weight. In the chronic series, the average for the 

 testes is 1.02 per cent, and for the epididymi 0.33 per cent. 

 It would therefore appear that during inanition the loss in 

 weight of both testes and epididymi is relatively not very dif- 

 ferent from that in the body as a whole, and is (like that of the 

 majority of the viscera) more marked in chronic than in acute 



