Richardson & Hogan (1946) produced hydrocephalus in rats by feeding a purified casein diet containing all the vitamins available at that time. Almost 2% of the young from females fed the experimental diet were hydrocephalic; female rats fed the same diet supplemented with liver extract gave birth to normal young. It is now thought that this diet was marginally deficient in vitamin B12 (Newberne & O’Dell, 1961). Animals which showed no gross evidence of lesions in the central nervous system had reduced maze-learning abilities as compared to animals on control diets (Whitley, O’Dell & Hogan, 1951).

Copyright © 1967 by Company of Biologists
1967
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