Premortal Increase in the Output of Sodium and Chlorine in Fasting Rats

Abstract

KUNSTMANN, in an experiment on himself¹, drank 10–20 litres of water daily, with an otherwise normal food intake. He felt fit during the experiment, his urinary output in sodium and chlorine sank to minimal values ; but nevertheless his sodium chloride balance became negative. On about the thirtieth day of the experiment, his chlorine excretion rose to abnormally high values and he felt ill, so he ended the experiment. We attempted to reproduce this experiment with rats. We gave them maize washed out in water, and twice daily 10 ml. of a 5·5 per cent glucose solution subcutaneously. In this way we attained great quantities of a rather dilute urine ; the animals slowly lost weight ; but the output of sodium and chlorine showed no increase, even on the fiftieth day of the experiment, and we failed to obtain a negative salt balance.