INANITION. 33 



one of the dogs experimented upon by Collard de Martigny, 

 death occurred on the thirty-fifth day, and, in another, on 

 the twenty-seventh day. The average duration of life in 

 rabbits was from ten to twelve days. 1 Leuret and Lassaigne 

 observed that dogs, kept in a warm and dry place, lived, on 

 an average, thirty days without food or drink. A dog that 

 was kept in a dark and damp place lived for forty days. 2 

 From thirty to thirty-five days, therefore, may be taken as 

 the average duration of life in dogs deprived entirely of food 

 and drink. This fact it is important to bear in mind in con- 

 nection with observations on the nutritive value of different 

 articles of food. 



Chossat states, as the result of his observations, that the 

 duration of life in inanition being equal to the total loss of 

 weight divided by the average daily loss, in adult animals it 

 is equal to -f-f^ of the weight of the body divided by the av- 

 erage daily loss. 3 This formula is highly important in a 

 practical point of view ; for, in conditions of the system in 

 which inanition is threatened, it is easy to estimate the prob- 

 able duration of life (if we fear that death may occur from 

 inanition alone), by dividing the total loss of weight which 

 will probably produce death, by the average daily loss ; and 

 anything which will diminish the average daily loss, we ma}- 

 reasonably suppose will retard the fatal termination. 



Insufficient Alimentation. When alimentation is re- 

 duced below the standard at which life can be maintained, 

 whether it be from diminished quantity or improper quality of 

 food, the phenomena are very much like those which follow 

 complete abstinence ; and, curiously enough, experiments on 

 animals have shown that death takes place when the weight 

 is reduced by about the same proportion as in absolute in- 



1 Loc. cit. 



a LEURET ET LASSAIGNE. Recherches Physiologiques et Chimiques pour servir 

 d VHistoire de la Digestion. Paris, 1825, p. 210. 

 3 CHOSSAT, op. cit., p. 34. 

 3 



