Denton and Kohman (33) have conducted experiments with rats which seem to establish the fact that foods poor in protein and rich in water, tend to cause edema. They restricted young rats to a diet of carrots and found that a large percentage of them suffered from edema. Kohman (34) extended these experiments by feeding carrots supplemented in several ways with purified food substances, and found that edema could be produced only in the animals confined to an inadequate protein intake and given somewhat excessive amounts of water with their food. These results correspond so closely with human experience and with the conditions under which a dropsical state occurs in domestic animals that they seem to establish the cause of edema in times of war and famine.

238. Sequence Of Events As Famine Conditions Approach

On the approach of famine conditions due to drought a shortage of forage plants ensues, and the animals, for want of pasturage are killed for food or become too emaciated to be of value for this purpose, and finally die. Green plants fail utterly, and the population becomes restricted to a diet of cereals and other seeds. Since these are the least perishable of our common food-stuffs, they form the last reserve. Especially when rice forms the principal cereal in the diet, the protein content is very low. This is the grain most used in those countries where periodic famines occur, as in India and China.

When famine conditions are brought about by war, circumstances may be very different. The cereals and other seed grains used as human food are at a premium as breadstuffs and meats become scarce and dear, since a large part of the population are called from agriculture to the army or to war industries. The less fortunate of the civilian population come to subsist more and more upon such low protein foods as potatoes and succulent vegetables, together with a limited amount of cereal and little or no meat or milk. It is under these conditions that nutritional dropsy has appeared on many occasions.