194 



CHAMBERLAIN, BLOOMBERGH, KILBOURNE. 



with liis eyes closed the greater part of the time. When prodded with a stick 

 he could be made to stand for a very short time. The comb and wattles were 

 deeply cyanosed and his whole appearance was that of a fowl very near to death. 



When the grains of palay were put before him he would greedily devour them. 

 From that time he improved in general condition, but like number 17 showed 

 more marked signs of neuritis during the succeeding days; unlike that fowl, he 

 did not show spasticity. At this stage pictures were taken which show the 

 usual positions assumed by fowls with the disease. (Figures 13 and 14.) After 

 9 days of this mixed diet his gait had improved somewhat, but not more so 

 than that of several fowls similarly saved from death after they had developed 

 marked signs of neuritis when fed on polished rice. 



He was chloroformed on November 16, the 27th day, and the sciatic nerve 

 removed for microscopic examination; it showed degeneration. 



His weight, shown on Chart 5, ran as follows: 



Date. 



Day. 



Grams. 



Remarks. 



October 21_ _. _ _ 



1st 



10th . 



16th 



23d 



27th .„_ 



963 

 892 

 700 

 729 

 800 



Starvation begun. 

 Mixed feeding begun. 

 Chloroformed. 



October 30 



November 5 



November 12 



November 16 





On the 16th day, when signs of neuritis appeared and the mixed feeding was 

 begun, he had lost 27.4 per cent of his body weight. 



Fowl number 56. The clinical history of this bird much resembles that of 

 number 42. 



October 21 starvation, except for water, was begun and continued until No- 

 vember 1, the 12th day, when a mixed diet of -palay and kitchen stuff was given. 

 This fowl declined in weight very rapidly and although starved only 12 days 

 had then lost 44.6 per cent. He died on November 2, the 13th day, after one 

 day of mixed diet. The appearance of this bird was similar to that of number 

 42; while the signs of nerve involvement seemed present, the~ general weakness 

 was so great that we could not be positive on this point. However, on micro- 

 scopic examination the sciatic nerves proved to be moderately degenerated. 



SUMMARY OF STARVATION EXPERIMENTS. 



Two fowls (numbers 18 and 19) were fed reduced quantities "of a 

 neuritis-preventing, undermilled rice and both developed multiple neu- 

 ritis. Eight fowls allowed nothing but water gave three positive cases 

 (numbers 17, 44, and 55), two doubtful (numbers 43 and 56), and 

 three negative ones (numbers 41, 43, and 54) . 



IV. GENERAL CONSIDERATION" OE MULTIPLE NEURITIS IN STARVED EOWLS. 



Eykman(l) did not find j^olyneuritis in chickens fed on such small quantities 

 of undermilled rice that they died from starvation. Sakaki(3) also stated that 

 the weakness in starvation progressed to death without any staggering or other 

 signs of neuritis. Hoist (11) in speaking of Eykman's nonobservance of poly- 

 neuritis in chickens starved on small amounts of undermilled rice, says, "Nor 

 have I found any polyneuritis myself, experimenting in a similar way with 

 pigeons." Likewise Fraser and Stanton (17) say in this connection, "Fowls 



