The effects of pneumonia and of postmortem changes on the percentage of water in the brain of the albino rat / Helen Dean King.

  • King, Helen Dean, 1869-1955.
Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The effects of pneumonia and of postmortem changes on the percentage of water in the brain of the albino rat / Helen Dean King. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    in the normal. It is to be further noted in their case, however, that the brain, owing to pneumonia, probably had at the moment of death from 0.3 to 0.4 per cent less water than is present in the brains of normal animals. It is evident, therefore, that the in- fected animals must have undergone a greater post-mortem change than did those of the five normal litters described above. From these several series of observations it follows that:— 1. Pneumonia in the albino rat reduces the percentage of water in the brain by 0.4 to 0.5 per cent. 2. Post-mortem changes occurring during the first eight hours after death cause an increase in the percentage of water in the brains of normal rats amounting to 0.3 per cent. In the case of rats dying from pneumonia the increase in the amount of water in the brain is about 0.7 to 0.8 per cent above that probably present at the time of death. LITERATURE CITED Donaldson, H. H. 1909 On the relation of the body length to the body weight and to the weight of the brain and of the spinal cord in the albino rat (Mus norvegicus var. albus). Jour. Comp. Neur. Psych., vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 155-167. 1910 On the percentage of water in the brain and in the spinal cord of the albino rat. Jour. Comp. Neur. Psych., vol. 20, no. 2, pp. 119-144.