436 NUTRITION. 



which, although they only have reference to the urinary excretion, 

 are of especial interest, as having been instituted in the human 

 subject. He found that an adult man, for every kilogramme's 

 weight of his body, discharged in twenty-four hours 29*5 grammes 

 of urine, in which there were contained 28*4 grammes of water, 

 0*420 of a gramme of urea, 0*335 of a gramme of salts, and 

 0*346 of a gramme of extractive matters ; while an insane patient 

 (a man aged 50 years), who had resolved on starving himself to 

 death, discharged, in a similar time, and for the same amount of 

 weight, only 11*07 grammes of urine, in which were 0*176 of a 

 gramme of urea, 0*167 of a gramme of salts, and 0*198 of a gramme 

 of extractive matters. Hence the amount of urine in the starving 

 man stands to that in the man living on an ordinary diet in the 

 ratio of 1 : 2*6, while the solid constituents are as 1 : 2*4, the urea 

 as 1 : 2*3, the salts as 1 : 5, and the extractive matters as 1 : 1*7. It 

 is a very striking fact in these experiments, that at the very time 

 when no nutrient matter is supplied to the organism, and when 

 there is no excess of combustible materials for the process of 

 oxidation, relatively more extractive matters were excreted than by 

 the man living on his ordinary diet. 



We now pass to the consideration of those relations of 

 nutrition which are accompanied by an increase of bodily weight. 

 This increase may possibly depend upon the typical augmentation 

 of the individual organs within the limits of the highest develop- 

 ment to which the organism can attain consequently, upon 

 growth. Although all the organs do not progress uniformly in 

 this typical development, they yet simultaneously participate to a 

 greater or less extent in this general increase and evolution, the 

 increase of one or other organ preponderating at the different 

 periods of life. These are well-known facts, derived from anatomy 

 and general physiology ; but they draw our attention to the diffi- 

 culties which oppose our endeavours to determine the metamor- 

 phosis of matter and the conditions of nutrition at this period of 

 life. 



An increase of bodily weight is, however, quite possible after 

 the termination of growth; and daily experience shows us that this 

 augmentation manifests itself more especially in two directions, 

 namely, by a true hypertrophy of the most vitally active organs, 

 as, for instance, the muscles, or by a more abundant deposition of 

 adipose tissue in the panniculus adiposus of the skin, in the 

 mesentery, &c. ; but although this increase may be regarded as a 

 normal condition of the human organism at a certain period of 



