INANITION. 29 



of food. This has been observed in persons rescued from 

 immediate starvation, who, in the last stages, can only be 

 temporarily revived. Magendie, in experimenting upon the 

 nutritive powers of different articles of food, observed in a 

 dog that had been fed exclusively on butter, all the phenom- 

 ena which accompany inanition. This animal died of starva- 

 tion on the thirty-sixth day, although on the thirty-second 

 day he was given an abundance of meat, which he continued 

 to eat for two days. 1 



The effect of inanition on respiration is to gradually di- 

 minish the number of respiratory acts, except during the 

 stages of cerebral, excitation, and, according to Chossat, 

 near the fatal termination, when the respiration is some- 

 times panting. The exhalation of carbonic acid is gradually 

 and progressively diminished. In an observation by Bidder 

 and Schmidt on a cat, the exhalation of carbonic acid was 

 gradually diminished, until just before the death of the ani- 

 mal (eighteen days), it was reduced a little more than one 

 half. 2 After a few days of complete inanition, or in persons 

 who have been subjected for some time to insufficient ali- 

 mentation, the breath becomes insufferably fetid and offen- 

 sive. In the instance reported by Dr. Soviche of eight men 

 who were shut up in a coal mine for nearly six days, with 

 but a half-pound of bread, a bit of cheese, and two glasses of 

 wine, the offensive character of the pulmonary exhalations 

 was one of the greatest sources of suffering. 3 



The influence of progressive inanition upon the animal 

 temperature is very marked. The organism seems to lose 

 the power of maintaining that uniform temperature which 

 is peculiar to warm-blooded animals. In almost all in- 

 stances of inanition in the human subject, a considerable 



1 MAGENDIE, Precis filementaire de Physiologic, Paris, 1836, tome ii., p. 502. 



2 See vol. i., Respiration, p. 434. 



3 SOVICHE, Exlrait du Rapport sur les Jiuit Hineurs enfermes pendent cent 

 (rente-six hcures dans la Houillicre du bois Monzil. Journal des Connaissances 

 Medico- Chirurgicales, Paris, 1836-1837, tome iv., p. 119. 



