BRAIN WEIGHT AND MOISTURE CONTENT IN NORMAL CHICKS AND THOSE WITH NUTRITIONAL ENCEPHALOMALACIA

Abstract

Young chicks upon synthetic diets develop a disorder of the central nervous system (nutritional encephalomalacia). The disease is shown to occur during the period of active brain growth. Growth curves are given for the different parts of the brain of 112 normal chicks killed at various ages from hatching to 12 weeks. The brain weights are dependent upon the body wt., and are not influenced by age, sex, or rate of growth. The different parts of the brain reach their maximum weight simultaneously when the chick weighs approximately 550 gms., which corresponds to an age of 9 weeks upon an optimum diet. Acute en-cephalomalacic lesions in either cerebellum or cerebrum are characterized by increased weight and moisture content.