LESIONS OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM IN VITAMIN DEFICIENCY : I. RATS ON A DIET LOW IN VITAMIN A

Under the conditions of these experiments, which consisted essentially of maintaining rats on a ration adequate in all dietary essentials as far as is known except vitamin A, the following changes were produced in the nervous system. 1. Degeneration of the medullary sheaths of the brachial plexuses and sciatic nerves, and less often of the vagus nerves. Such lesions were not found in the optic nerves. 2. Degeneration of the medullary sheaths of the sensory tracts on the periphery of the spinal cord and in the posterior columns. Much less frequently similar lesions were found in both the crossed and uncrossed pyramidal tracts. 3. Changes of the same nature in the posterior nerve roots and less frequently in the anterior nerve roots of the spinal cord. Evidence was adduced to indicate that the changes in the sensory tracts of the spinal cord followed those in the posterior nerve roots. With the onset of muscular weakness and incoordination in these animals anatomic changes like those just described were found at necropsy, but they were not present for any appreciable period preceding the onset of these clinical signs. For a short but undetermined period following clinical signs of recovery from the nervous disease, marked lesions were still present in the nervous system at necropsy. These lesions in the nervous system were produced by a ration containing no cereals which might have contributed a "toxic" substance to account for the degeneration of the myelin sheaths. Neither does a deficiency in unsaturated fatty acids appear to have played a rôle in their development.