GERM GLANDS AND GERM CELLS OF FROG LARVAE 547 



held at constant body weight, there is a considerable decrease in 

 weight (27 per cent in absolute weight). The author remarks, 

 however, that the ovary is an extremely variable organ, and 

 difficult to dissect out with accuracy. 



Another investigator, Hatai ('15), used a chemically defective 

 (lipoid-free) diet upon albino rats, and found a marked atrophy 

 of the testes in those animals whose growth had been retarded 

 by the lipoid-free ration. 



Falck ('54) experimented with dogs, and found that the rela- 

 tive (percentage) weight of the testes of these animals is unaf- 

 fected by inanition. 



Voit, working with cats ('66), found that there is a relative 

 decrease in the weight of the testes of these animals when they 

 are subjected to inanition. 



Grandis observed in fasting pigeons, that spermatogenesis 

 ceased after the beginning of the inanition experiment. He 

 found that the sperm cells already formed soon died and were 

 resorbed, as was also the greater portion of the seminiferous 

 tubules. Some cells in the walls of the tubes persisted however 

 and after completion of the fast and renewed feeding, these re- 

 maining cells gave rise to new sexual elements. This author 

 expresses the opinion that testis cells assume the character of 

 embryonic cells during periods of inanition. 



Semono witch starved a series of rabbits, and guinea pigs and 

 found, upon examination of the testes, a parenchymatous modi- 

 fication (slight swelling and granular degeneration) which was 

 associated with fatty degeneration, vacuolization of the cells 

 and chromatolysis. These degenerative changes, however, ap- 

 peared irregularly in the starved animals. Functional sperma- 

 tozoa were found in the semniferous tubules. All of the degen- 

 erative changes vanish, the author states, upon renewed feeding. 



Cordes found that in conditions of chronic illness in man, 

 which produce cachexia, there is an increase of interstitial tissue 

 in the testes, and thickening of the walls of the semniferous tub- 

 ules. In twenty-one cases, examined by him, without cachexia, 

 spermatogenesis had ceased. In very emaciated cases he found 

 cessation of spermatogenesis. 



