426 OF NUTRITION. 



organs, the store of fat, for example, being almost entirely used up, whilst 

 the nerve-centres undergo scarcely any change, from which it would appear 

 that some organs continue to be nourished at the expense of others. Ranke 

 gives the following as the results of an experiment upon himself, in which 

 no food or drink was taken : 



Body weight bofore the experiment, . . . . 69,643 grammes. 

 after " " .... 68,513 " 



Loss, . 1,130 



The ingesta (i. e., loss of weight of the body) were calculated for twenty- 

 four hours of the second day of total abstinence from the loss of weight of 

 the body: 



Egesta. N. C. Ingesta. N. C. 



(Estimated.) 

 50.7 grammes of "I Q QOJ 9? 796 



Albumen. . j 

 198 1 grammes of Fat, 156.7 



17.025 Urea, . 7.9455 3.5654 



0.230 Uric acid, . 0.0786 0.0843 

 In the respiration, . 180.8500 



Total, . 8.024 181.5 8.024 184.5 



The calculated loss of albumen and fat amounted to 248.8 grammes, to 

 which must be added 7.7 grammes of extractives and salts excreted in the 

 urine. The loss of solids amounted to 256.5 grammes ; the remainder, there- 

 fore, 873.5 grammes of the total loss, was water. Seegeu, 1 from the amount 

 of N. eliminated in the urine, found that in a young girl, who in conse- 

 quence of stricture of the oesophagus was only able to swallow about an 

 ounce of milk per diem, the consumption of body albumen reckoned dry 

 was about 386 grains per diem, and that since an excess of water was egested, 

 the blood and tissues must have become poorer in water, or drier. The 

 metamorphoses of the album inates during fasting, so far as they \yere repre- 

 sented by the excretory products of the urine, bore the proportion to the 

 normal metamorphosis of 1 : 4 or 1:5. It must be borne in mind, however, 

 that we cannot conclude from analysis of egesta in the fasting state, or from 

 calculation based on those analyses of the quantity of albumen or fat 

 actually consumed in the acts of life, that we have obtained accurate data of 

 the minimum required for the maintenance of an animal in its normal state ; 

 for numerous experiments have shown, that if the same amount of food be 

 given as will exactly cover egesta in the fasting state, the excretions by skin 

 and lungs, urine and fieces, will exceed that quantity in weight ; clearly show- 

 ing that the animal still consumes a portion of its own body, or, in other 

 words, that more than a minimum is required. According to Bidder and 

 Schmidt, whilst the loss of weight sustained by an iuauitiated Carnivorous 

 quadruped is about 2.2 per cent, daily, nearly twice as much, or 4.4 per cent., 

 is required to keep up its weight to the ordinary standard. The most im- 

 portant of the conclusions drawn by Schmidt in regard to the effects of fast- 

 ing are 1. That whilst the daily quantity of fat undergoing oxidation, in a 

 fasting animal, remains nearly constant; that of the albumen falls in the 

 course of the first two days to on-e-half, then remains constant for eight days, 

 then falls slowly, and during the last two days diminishes rapidly and con- 

 siderably. 2. The quantity of expired aqueous vapor diminishes continually 

 but unequally, falling more quickly at the commencement and at the end 

 of the experiment. The proportion'of aqueous vapor eliminated by the skin 

 and lungs to that discharged by the urine and faeces remains constant as 







i Seegen, loc. cit., and abstract in Lancet, 1871, vol. i, p. 793. 



