Abstract
WHILE investigating the factors influencing the length of survival of rats after adrenalectomy, we found1 that rats receiving liberal quantities of bread as a supplement to their usual diet lived many times longer than the controls fed on the stock ration alone. That this was only partly due to the high sodium chloride content of the bread (8 per cent by dry weight) seemed evident from the still markedly prolonged survival of rats receiving bread with a sodium chloride content as low as the stock diet, namely, 1 per cent. This diet, containing cereals, meat, molasses and vitamins (Purina Dog Chow), was taken well by unoperated animals. After adrenalectomy, however, the rats soon manifested an almost complete anorexia for the Purina, but those with access to bread in addition ate this well almost until the time of death. Consequently, these animals ingested more sodium chloride and a greater number of calories than the rats on Purina alone—facts favouring survival.
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R. A. Cleghorn, S. M. M. Cleghorn, M. G. Forster and G. A. McVicar, J. Physiol, 86, 229 (1936).
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W. D. Allers, H. W. Nilson and E. C. Kendall, Proc. Staff Meet. Mayo Clinic, 11, 283 (1936).
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CLEGHORN, R., MCVICAR, G. High Potassium Diet and the Survival of Adrenalectomized Rats. Nature 138, 124 (1936). https://doi.org/10.1038/138124b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/138124b0
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