STARVATION. 251 



Pharynx, ((Esophagus) . . . 34 per cent. 



Skin 33 ,, 



Kidneys 31 ,, 



Respiratory apparatus . .22 ,, 



Bones . . . . . . 16 ,, 



Eyes 10 ,, 



Nervous system . ... 2 ,, (nearly). 



(2). The effect of starvation on the temperature of the 

 various animals experimented on by Chossat was very 

 marked. For some time the variation in the daily tempe- 

 rature was more marked than its absolute and continuous 

 dimunition, the daily fluctuation amounting to 5 or 6 F., 

 instead of i or 2 F., as in health. But a short time 

 before death, the temperature fell very rapidly, and death 

 ensued when the loss had amounted to about 30 F. It has 

 been often said, and with truth, although the statement 

 requires some qualification, that death by starvation is 

 really death by cold ; for not only has it been found that 

 differences of time with regard to the period of the fatal 

 result are attended by the same ultimate loss of heat, but 

 the effect of the application of external warmth to animals 

 cold and dying from starvation, is more effectual in reviving 

 them than the administration of food. In other words, an 

 animal exhausted by deprivation of nourishment is unable 

 so to digest food as to use it as fuel, and therefore is de- 

 pendent for heat on its supply from without. Similar 

 facts are often observed in the treatment of exhaustive 

 diseases in man. 



(3). The symptoms produced by starvation in the human 

 subject are hunger, accompanied, or it may be replaced, 

 by pain, referred to the region of the stomach ; insatiable 

 thirst ; sleeplessness ; general weakness and emaciation. 

 The exhalations both from the lungs and skin are foetid, 

 indicating the tendency to decomposition which belongs 

 to badly-nourished tissues; and death occurs, sometimes 

 after the additional exhaustion caused by diarrhoea, often 



