336 



R. R. BENSLEY 



In attempting to determine for the guinea pig whether inanition 

 has had any effect on the number of islets in the pancreas I have 

 employed the method of total counting of the islets after staining 

 them by the neutral red injection method. The islets stain just 

 as well in the inanition animals as in normal resting animals or 

 as in secretin animals but the counting is not so easy, because of 

 the fact that certain products of retrogressive change make their 

 appearance in the cells, in the form of large globules which stain 

 with neutral red. Always, ^Iso, there is considerable zymogen 

 in the cells, the opacity of which helps to conceal the smallest 

 islets, and in many cases numerous fat globules which have the 

 same effect. The results, however, even if one makes allowance 

 for a considerable loss of islets in counting, which is not the case, 

 though doubtless the counts are somewhat lower than the actual 

 numbers, are perfectly clearly in opposition to the claims that 

 inanition iiicreases the number of islets in the pancreas. Of the 

 six animals counted, not one shows a high content of islets, thus 



TABLE 5 

 Inanition experirnents 

 Series 1 . Inanition animals 



Controls 



Series 2. Inanition animals 



i 



