INAOTTION. 25 



accurate knowledge of the phenomena which attend inani- 

 tion or insufficient alimentation. The experiments of Collard 

 de Martigny, on dogs, though undertaken with the view of 

 determining the influence of starvation on the constitution 

 of the blood and lymph, developed many interesting facts 

 with regard to the general changes which take place in this 

 condition. 1 A few years later, the phenomena of inanition 

 and its influence upon the various organs were minutely 

 studied by Chossat, whose exhaustive memoir received the 

 prize of experimental physiology from the Parisian Academy 

 of Sciences, in 1844. These researches, beside confirming 

 the observations of Collard de Martigny, developed many 

 new facts, and have since served as the basis of our accurate 

 experimental knowledge on this subject. 2 Phenomena anal- 

 ogous to those observed in animals have been noted in the 

 instances in which starvation has been observed in the 

 human subject, with the addition of certain intellectual dis- 

 turbances which accompany this condition. 



The following are the effects of inanition, as ascertained 

 chiefly by experiments upon the inferior animals : 



Progressive diminution in the weight of the body has 

 been invariably observed. Though the sensible excretions 

 are very much diminished in quantity, it is none the less 

 evident that destructive assimilation is constantly going on, 

 even long after the process of repair has ceased. Chossat 

 has shown that the maximum of daily loss of weight is 

 generally at the commencement of an experiment. Some- 

 times it is toward the termination, but never during the in- 

 termediate period. The great loss in weight generally ob- 

 served at the commencement is due to the discharge of the 

 residue of aliment taken the day before. Without noting 

 the first day, the daily loss from the commencement to the 



1 COLLARD DE MARTIGNY, Recherches Experimentales sur les Effete de I 1 Absti- 

 nence complete d'Alimem solides el liguides, sur la composition et la quantite du 

 Sang et de la LympJie. Journal de Physiologic, 1828, tome via., p. 152. 



2 CHOSSAT, Recherches Experimentales sur V Inanition, Paris, 1843. 



