symptoms of adrenal insufficiency could be returned to normal by administering extract. Recently we have completed a series of experiments in which the extract was tested on comatose animals prostrate and on the verge of death from adrenal insufficiency. The extract employed is a modification of the one previously described and is very low in adrenalin and solid content. The cats were bilaterally adrenalectomized and allowed to develop very severe adrenal insufficiency symptoms. At the time of first injection of extract they were prostrate and unable to stand on their feet or move about, and so weak that if placed on their feet they promptly collapsed. The skin was cold and clammy and the rectal temperature down to 95°. The rectal temperature of normal or unilateral operated cats ranges from 101.4 to 102°. Adrenaleetomized cats presenting the symptoms just described live but a few hours and death may occur at any moment. By repeated injections of our purest preparations we have been able to revive such animals and return them to normal condition and to keep them in perfect health by daily injections. The body temperature, blood picture, appetite and strength return to normal. It is a striking experience to one working with the animals to take a comatose cat with death imminent from adrenal insufficiency and by a few injections to revive it so that within seventy hours it has completely recovered and is running and playing about the laboratory apparently none the worse for its hazardous experience.
Fat content in locomotor muscles is an important source of energy, especially during sustained actitity (George and Jyoti, 1957). The amount of such fat varies with different species, but whether this depends upon the use made of these muscles or other factors is uncertain. George and Naik (1960) reported values for the pectoralis major of birds ranging from 2.18 to 6.35 per cent in 18 species. Hoping to throw more light on this question, we have conducted the present investigation. A comparative study of the weights of the locomotor muscles gave us the opportunsty to determine the fat or lipid content of the muscles in a large number of species of birds. Our study included muscles of the lower extremities as well as the pectoralis. We have determined muscle lipids in 104 species representing 42 families.
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