Lesions of the central and peripheral nervous systems produced in young rabbits by vitamin A deficiency and a high cereal intake / by Edward Mellanby.

  • Edward Mellanby
Date:
[1935?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Lesions of the central and peripheral nervous systems produced in young rabbits by vitamin A deficiency and a high cereal intake / by Edward Mellanby. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    LESIONS OF THE CENTRAL AND PERIPHERAL NERVOUS SYSTEMS PRODUCED IN YOUNG RABBITS BY VITAMIN A DEFICIENCY AND A HIGH CEREAL INTAKE. BY EDWARD MELLANBY, Field Laboratory, Sheffield University. In previous publications [1 (a), (h), (c), (d), (e), (/)] accounts have been given of the dietetic methods whereby degenerative changes in the central and peripheral nervous systems of young dogs and rabbits can be produced and prevented. The two outstanding factors which, when associated together, produce these changes are : (1) A deficiency of vitamin A and carotene in the diet; and (2) a high cereal intake. Of these, the absence of vitamin A and carotene is probably the more important in young animals, for if either is added to the basal diets so far tested the degenerative changes do not occur. On the other hand, when vitamin A and carotene are deficient, the nerve degeneration can be made worse by altering the amount and type of cereal eaten, or in the dog by adding certain cereal products such as the embryo on ergot. Except for one publication [1 (e)] in which the effects of vitamin A and carotene deficiency in producing xerophthalmia in rabbits were related to degenerative changes in the ophthalmic division of the trigeminal nerve, most of the published results referred to experimental work on dogs. It seemed desirable, therefore, that a fuller account should be given of the complex changes in nerve-cells and nerve-fibres which can be readily produced in young rabbits by similar dietetic means. Clearly, for a herbivorous animal like the rabbit, the basal diet must be of a different nature from that used in the dog experiments, and yet the same specific dietetic defects must be present in both. Experiments were originally begun on rabbits with the object of discovering if possible the chemical nature of the substances in ergot and in cereals which act as neurotoxins in dogs and probably in man in