310 



Influence of Inanition on Metabolism. 



While Falck 8 in his work on dogs and later Luciani (4) in reporting his 

 experiment with Succi have considered at length the possibilities of a math- 

 ematical relation between the loss in weight and the length of the fast it is 

 clear that at least so far as experiments on man are concerned, when accurate 

 records of body-weight are made and computations of the percentage loss per 

 day are recorded, very little regularity in the losses in weight appears. The 

 loss in weight is affected not only by variations in the weight of urine, 



Table 189. Daily cumulative percentage loss from original body weight in meta- 

 bolism experiments without food. 



Day of fast. 



S. A. B. 



Experi-, 



ment 



71. 2 



58.2 K. 



Experi- 

 ment 

 77.2 

 61.6 K. 



First day. . . 

 Second day . 

 Third day. . . 

 Fourth day . 

 Fifth day... 

 Sixth day. . . 

 Seventh day, 



Per ct. 

 2.13 

 2.77 

 3.99 



Per ct. 

 2.33 

 56 



Per ct. 

 0.89 

 2.21 

 2.83 

 3.87 



Per ct. 

 1.87 

 2.75 

 3.46 

 5.38 



Per ct. 

 1.19 

 3.13 

 5.56 

 6.97 



Day of fast. 



H. E. S. 



Experi- 

 ment 

 79. 3 



57.2 K. 



C. R. Y. 



Experi- 

 ment 

 80> 

 69.3 K. 



A. H. M. 



Experi- 

 ment 

 81. 3 



62.0 K. 



H. C. K. 



Experi- 

 ment 

 82. 3 

 71.5 K. 



H. R. D. 



Experi- 

 ment 

 83. 3 

 55.6 K. 



N. M. P. 



Experi- 

 ment 

 85. 3 

 67.6 K. 



D. W. 



Experi- 

 ment 

 89/ 

 79.1 K. 



First day. . . 

 Second day. 



Per ct. 

 1.90 

 3.14 



1 Beginning weight assumed from weigh- 

 ing of later date, includes underclothing. 

 3 Weights include underclothing. 



8 Weights without clothes. 



4 Weights include all clothing. 



5 Weights without clothes. 



water of respiration and perspiration, and carbon dioxide, but also by the water 

 ingested. Furthermore, it is highly probable that temperature, muscular 

 activity, state of bodily condition and other more or less obscure factors all 

 contribute toward the balance between income and outgo in such a manner as 

 to cause the marked fluctuations in body-weight appearing on different days. 

 Hence it is obvious that losses in body-weight in experiments of but few days 

 duration are wholly without significance. 



With regard to the total cumulative loss as the experiment progresses, it 

 appears that in the long experiments of Succi the loss bears in general a direct 

 ratio to the length of the experiment. 



Beitrage z. Physiol., Hyg., Pharm. u. Toxikol. (1875). 



