Nutrition Classics

(1) On the macroscopical alterations in the tissues of guinea-pigs which had been fed exclusively on bread, groats, and unpeeled grain. BY experimenting with the " one-sided " diets which were used in the experiments, mentioned in the foregoing paper on polyneuritis in poultry, we found that guinea-pigs also contract a disease, and that this disease is accompanied by very characteristic changes. The present section of our paper deals with the 64 animals that died in 18 days or more when fed on ground or unground oats, barley, rye, or wheat and water. To these we add one animal fed on rye-bread that died in 15 days. The weight of the animals was usually 300— 600 gms. Apart from two guinea-pigs fed on a mixture of oats and rye-bread, each animal received one single nutriment only. During the experiment the animals became emaciated, the corresponding total loss of weight being, on an average, 40 % of the weight at the beginning of the experiment. In some cases the weight decreased uniformly, but as a rule the animals at first lost weight, then either increased or remained unchanged for 3—14 days, and finally exhibited a definite decrease in weight during the week or so preceding death.