A STUDY OF BARLOW'S DISEASE EXPERIMENTALLY PRODUCED IN FETAL AND NEW-BORN GUINEA PIGS

Abstract

1. Pronounced cases of Barlow's disease may be produced in the fetus as early as ten to fifteen days after the commencement of dieting pregnant guinea pigs with oats and water. There are wide individual variations. The scorbutic changes in the skeleton are greatest in the earlier embryonic stages. The fetuses of that period, with practically no exceptions, die and show marked traces of impeded growth. 2. Fetuses from the later period of pregnancy are born alive, and apparently fully developed, with comparatively slight changes in the osseous system. 3. Even a short extension of the period of extra-uterine dieting on milk from scorbutic mothers and later on oats and water is sufficient to change the latent scurvy into a highly pronounced case. 4. The fetus cannot be kept alive longer than the adult animal, about twenty-eight days, either by intra-uterine dieting alone or by combined intra- and extra-uterine dieting. 5. The mothers show signs of disease at an early period, and are more severely attacked than non-pregnant animals. Death also occurs comparatively often in the first period of gestation.