382 C. M. JACKSON 



tains its spherical or ovoiclal (ellipsoidal) form. Morgulis Cll) 

 found a tendency to relati\'e elongation in the nuclei of \'arious 

 organs in Dieniyctylus during starvation, but not in the liver and 

 pancreas of the albino rat. 



Traina ('04) finds in the thyroid of the rabbit during inanition 

 a decrease of about 30 per cent in the volume of the cells, the loss 

 being relatively greater in the cytoplasm than in the nucleus. 

 The cells lose more in height than in breadth; the nucleus remains 

 distinct and regular in outline. The fatty granules (previously 

 described in the thyroid by Erdheim '03) remain in the atrophic 

 cells unchanged in position, number, form and size. 



Missiroli ('11) in rabbits finds the thyroid structure correlated 

 with the stage of digestion present. When food is withheld, the 

 colloid is no longer eliminated but accumulates and distends the 

 follicles. In some cases of prolonged fasting, the colloid may 

 undergo 'fatty degeneration.' In advanced stages of inanition, 

 nuclei and protoplasm undergo atrophy, and the interstitial (con- 

 nective) tissue appears increased. On refeeding, the colloid ac- 

 cumulated in the follicles is rapidly eliminated. 



Mrs. Thompson ('11) states that: 



In a doK which had been yu])jocted to a few days' inanition, the thy- 

 roid (hardened in strong Flemniing's fluid) appears very different from 

 the normal. The cells appear swollen rather than proliferated, and in 

 some cases vesicles are filled with cells. The vesicles are shrunk so as 

 to assume various shapes, and much inter vesicular material appears. 

 The general appearance is as if the gland had been roughly squeezed, 

 so that the vesicles are any shape but spherical. The change wrought 

 by inanition seems to make the structiu'c of the gland tend towards 

 that of the parathyroid. 



It is doubtful to what extent the changes described by Airs. 

 Thompson were actually due to inanition, since the inanition 

 period was relatively short (for a dog) and the normal variation 

 in structure is uncertain. She describes a similar appearance 

 in the thyroid of a cereal-fed dog, while that of a meat-fed dog 

 was normal. 



In general, therefore, we find that the observations upon the 

 structure of the thyroid during inanition, including those of pre- 



