EFFECTS ON THE HEART AND BLOOD VESSELS 227 



scopic examination that in (living) emaciated infants the heart appears 

 diminished in size; while Marfan ('21) claimed that in athreptic infants the 

 heart, like the brain, is very resistant to inanition. Nicolaeff ('23) found the 

 heart weight usually 20 to 40 (sometimes 50) per cent subnormal for age in 

 famine-stricken children in Russia. Stefko ('24) noted greater cardiac atrophy 

 in the female, especially about the age of puberty. 



My own data (Tables 2 and 3) confirm the principle that in malnourished 

 infants the heart weight approximates the normal for corresponding body weight, 

 although markedly below the normal for the previous maximum body weight, 

 or the final body length (Fig. 71); and especially retarded in comparison with 

 the normal for corresponding age (Table 2). The individual data from various 

 sources for cardiac weights plotted in Fig. 70 seem to indicate a relatively 

 greater cardiac resistance to inanition during infancy than in later years up to 

 the adult. 



In various adult animals, Lucas (1826) found the heart apparently normal, 

 but Collard de Martigny ('28) noted that it appeared small and atrophic in 

 starved dogs and rabbits. Chossat ('43) observed that in starved pigeons the 

 cardiac fat usually disappears, and the heart loses about 45 per cent in weight, 

 while the loss in body weight is only about 40 per cent. 



In a starved cat, Bidder and Schmidt ('52) found that, in comparison with 

 a normal control, the heart weight had increased from 10.85 g- to I2 -33 g-> which 

 indicates perhaps an error or abnormality. Similarly Voit ('66) found in two 

 cats an apparent loss of only 3 per cent in cardiac weight. These observations 

 indicating little or no loss in the heart during inanition have since been fre- 

 quently cited in the literature (e.g., Kitt '18), although a large number of later 

 data lead to a different conclusion. The earlier observations are sometimes 

 cited in support of the theory that the most active organs lose relatively least 

 during inanition. 



Manassein ('68, '69) in 47 adult fasting rabbits with average loss of 39 per 

 cent in body weight, found a loss of 24 per cent in heart weight; and in several 

 cases the normal weight was recovered upon refeeding. In 2 crows with loss of 

 36 per cent in body weight, the apparent loss in heart weight was 40 per cent. 

 In various mammals (guinea pig, rabbit, cat and dog) and birds (fowl, pigeon), 

 mostly on total inanition, but some with water or on incomplete inanition, 

 Bourgeois ('70) observed an average loss of about 40 per cent in body weight. 

 The heart was found atrophied nearly in proportion to the other musculature, 

 with an average loss of 45 per cent, sometimes over 50 per cent. Luciani and 

 Bufalini ('82) noted an atrophied heart in a starved dog; likewise Voit ('94), 

 the loss in body weight being 32 per cent, and in heart weight 22 per cent. In 

 a starved rabbit, Pfeiffer ('87) noted an apparent loss of 28 per cent in heart 

 weight, and of 27 per cent in body weight; while in pigeons on total inanition 

 Lukjanow ('89) found a loss of only 15 per cent in heart weight, with loss of 34 

 per cent in body weight. 



Lazareff ('95) in a series of fasting guinea pigs, 10 in each group, with average 

 losses of 10, 20, 30 and 36 per cent in body weight, noted corresponding losses 

 of 4.84, 9.14, 20.97 and 33.33 per cent in heart weight. The loss in heart weight 

 thus appears relatively greater toward the end of starvation (Table 5). 



