OF HUNGER AND THIRST STARVATION. 



123 



which the fat had been most abundant, which were also those that lived 

 the longest. 1 Taking 40 per cent, as the mean, M. Chossat obtained the fol- 

 lowing curious results, as regards the relative diminution of the several tis- 

 sues and organs of the body; those which lost more than the mean, beiug 

 distinguished from those which lost less : 



Parts which lose more than 40 per cent. 



Fat, 93.3 



Blood, .... . 75.0 



Spleen, 714 



Pancreas, ..... 64.1 



Liver, f>2 



Heart . 44.8 



Intestines, . . . . 42 4 



Muscles of locomotion, . . . 42.3 



Parts which lose tess than 40 per cent. 



Muscular coat of stomach, . . 39.7 



Pharynx and oesophagus, . . 34.2 



Skin, 33.3 



Kidneys, 31.9 



Respiratory apparatus, . . . 22 2 



Osseous system, .... 16.7 



Eyes, 100 



Nervous system, .... 1.9 



The points most worthy of note in the above table are the almost complete 

 removal of the fat, and the reduction of the blood to three-fourths its normal 

 amount, the diminution, as has since been shown by Valentin and Panum, 

 especially affecting the albumen of the serum ; whilst the nervous system 

 undergoes scarcely any loss. It would seem, in fact, as if the supervention 

 of death was coincident with the consumption of all the disposable combus- 

 tive material ; and that up to that point, the whole remaining energy of 

 nutrition is concentrated upon the nervous system. And it will be shown 

 hereafter that there is adequate ground for considering death by starvation 

 as really death by cold; since the temperature of the body is maintained 

 with little diminution until the fat is thus consumed, and then rapidly falls, 

 unless it be kept up by heat externally applied. As might be expected from 

 the comparative rapidity of interstitial change at the earlier periods of life, 

 it was found by Chossat that the diurnal loss was much the most rapid in 

 young animals, and that the duration of their lives when deprived of food 

 was consequently far less than that of adults. He further ascertained that 

 the results of insufficient alimentation were in the end the same as those of 

 entire deprivation of food ; the total amount of loss beiug almost exactly 

 identical, but its rate being less, so that a longer time was required to pro- 

 duce it. Neither he nor Scheffer 2 found that much influence was exerted on 

 the duration of life, by permitting or withdrawing the supply of water ; the 

 latter experimenter found that in a dog wholly deprived of water the loss 

 in weight of the different organs was nearly the same as in deprivation of 

 solid food, with the exception of the brain, fat, and glandular organs, which 

 were not materially diminished. All the tissues became much drier; the 

 skin, tendons, muscles, intestines, and blood, containing from 4 to 11 per 

 cent, more solid residue than in health. It appears, however, that in Man 

 death supervenes much earlier when liquid as well as solid aliment is with- 

 held ; and the indifference observed by Chossat in the case of Birds is prob- 

 ably due to the fact that they ordinarily drink very sparingly, and eliminate 

 very little water in their various excretions. The experiments of Blundel 

 and Pauum show that the life of a dog deprived of food cannot be preserved 

 by the frequent transfusion of the blood of other healthy dogs. 



1 There is a well-known case of a fat pig, which was buried in its sty for 160 days, 

 under thirty feet of the chalk of Dover clin"; and which was dug out alive at the 

 end of that time, reduced in weight from 160 Ibs. to 40 Ibs., or no less than 75 per 

 cent. (Trans, of Linn. Soc., vol. xi, p. 411.) This extraordinary prolongation of 

 life in this case may be attributed to the retention of the heat of the body by the 

 non-conducting power of the chalk, and to the retention of its moisture by the satu- 

 ration of the air in its immediate vicinity, and restriction of its movements. 



2 Ludwig, Physiologic, 1861, vol. ii, p. 683. 



