INFLUENCE OF DIET AND IODIDES OPOSSUMS 



63 



17, the diet consisted of raw beef, free from fat and tendon, 5,4 

 g.; beef fat, 3 g. ; and bread 7 g., per kilo of body weight. The 

 second group, numbers 10, 14, 15, received daily, cheese, 3.6 g.; 

 bread, 7 g. ; and beef fat, 2.4 g., per kilo. Group three, including 

 numbers 11 and 16, received daily, boiled egg, 9.4 g.; fat, 2.4 

 g. ; bread, 7 g., per kilo. 



Number 9, which shows a loss of 300 grams in weight, refused 

 throughout to eat the bread. Numbers 13 and 14 each had a 

 severe infection in a foot. Number 15 kept on the indicated diet 

 for three weeks showed a gain in weight of 120 g. Then the 

 right lobe was removed and the animal placed on the mixed 

 unrestricted diet. It died on the fourth day after operation from 

 infection in the wound, having lost meanwhile 400 g. in weight. 



This series is remarkable for the low gross weights of the thy- 

 roid glands as well as for the low ratio of the corrected weight to 

 body weight. Histologically, all the glands present the normal 

 picture, though there is much variation, as indicated in the table, 

 in the amount of colloid present. This variation, as well as the 

 variation in the weight of the thyroid tissue per kilo of body 

 weight, probably represents initial differences in the glands. 



The series shows that the hyperplasia can be controlled by diet 

 alone. 



That the failure to show hyperplasia in this series is not due 

 to a mild degree of starvation, as might be suggested by the fact 

 that some of the animals lost weight, is indicated by cases 13 and 



