Abstract
Many reports have been made on the contraction of the stomach due to hunger, in man and animals. In certain instances the x-ray was used 1 and in others, mechanical contrivances were utilized to record the results. The radiological studies have included the emptying time of the stomach due to hunger. Ivy and Fauley 2 state that hunger or fasting causes the stomach to empty faster in both dog and man.
The experiments herein reported were made on normal, healthy rats that were gradually deprived of food over a period of 3 weeks, with no restriction as to the intake of water. This series consisted of 5 rats, averaging 342 gm. in weight. They were at first made to fast for a period of 24 hours and subsequently each rat was fed 2 gm. of normal food a day for a period of 21 days. Two of these rats died, one on the tenth and the other on the fifteenth day of the experiment. All of the rats lost weight, the average weekly loss in weight per rat was 54 gm.
The remaining rats of this series on the twenty-first day of starvation were fasted and made to abstain from water for 24 hours and then fed a 10 gm. mixture of 3 parts of buttermilk and one part of barium sulphate and permitted to eat for 20 minutes and then immediately fluoroscoped to ascertain if the stomach was filled. The fluoroscopic observations were continued every 15 minutes until the stomach and small intestines were found empty. The examination of the colon was made at greater intervals of time.
Three normal rats were fed the same food over the same time, but the quantity of food per day was 14 gm. per rat which is considered an average normal amount.” On the twenty-first day they also were made to fast and abstain from water for 24 hours, when they were given the same mixture as the other rats and examined in a similar manner by means of the x-rays.
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