EFFECTS OF THIRST — ALBINO RATS 421 



Bladder. The urinary bladder was isolated from the surround- 

 ing adipose tissue and peritoneum. At autopsy the bladder is 

 always empty and contracted; its mucosa appeared hyperemic. 

 Unfortunately, the weights were recorded in only a few cases 

 (table 1). The bladder in the test animals (table 2) shows in 

 average weight an apparent loss of 39.7 per cent in the acute- 

 thirst series and of 46.9 per cent in the chronic-thirst series. Al- 

 though the observations are too few for definite conclusions, it 

 appears that the loss of weight in the bladder is relatively greater 

 than in the kidney, and is more nearly proportional to that of the 

 body as a whole. Falck and Scheffer ('54) in a dog on a dry diet 

 found an apparent loss of 34.9 per cent in the weight of the blad- 

 der (body weight, — 20.4 per cent) . 



Testes 



The testes during thirst, especially in the chronic-thirst series, 

 appear atrophic and often become softer than in the controls. 

 The test rats show no spermatozoa in the ductus deferens or 

 seminal vesicles. 



In the acute- thirst series the testes apparently lose only 15.1 

 per cent in average weight, but in the chronic-thirst series the 

 loss is 59.9 per cent (table 2). In the rat (Si. 2) after total 

 inanition (table 1) the corresponding apparent loss is 36.9 per 

 cent. In a dog on dry diet, Falck and Scheffer noted an appar- 

 ent loss of 23.5 per cent in the weight of the testes and penis 

 (body weight, —20.7 per cent). 



In albino rats after inanition with water, Jackson ('15) found 

 the loss in weight of the testes is, relatively, slightly less than that 

 of the body as a whole during acute inanition, and slightly 

 greater than that during chronic inanition. In the cat a relative 

 decrease in the weight of the testis during inanition was observed 

 by Voit ('66). McCarrison ('19) finds a marked atrophy of the 

 testis in pigeons on vitamine-free diets and a less marked atrophy 

 in monkeys. 



