844 NUTRITION AND HEAT REGULATION. 



Loss TO 



SUPPOSED WEIGHT ACTUAL Loss EACH 100 GMS. 

 OP ORGANS BEFORE OF ORGANS OF FRESH ORGAN 

 STARVATION. IN GMS. (PERCENTAGE Loss) 



Bone 393.4 54.7 13.9 



Muscle 1408.4 429.4 30.5 



Liver 91.9 49.4 53.7 



Kidney . . .' 25.1 6.5 25.9 



Spleen 8.7 5.8 66.7 



Pancreas 6.5 1.1 17.0 



Testes 2.5 1.0 40.0 



Lungs 15.8 2.8 17.7 



Heart 11.5 0.3 2.6 



Intestines 118.0 20.9 18.0 



Brain and cord 40.7 1.3 3.2 



Skin and hair 432.8 89.3 20.6 



Fat 275.4 267.2 97.0 



Blood 138.5 37.3 27.0 



Remainder 136.0 50.0 36.8 



According to these results, the greatest absolute loss was in the 

 muscles (429gms.), while the greatest percentage loss was in the fat 

 (97 per cent.), which had practically disappeared from the body. 

 It is very significant that the central nervous system and the heart, 

 organs which we may suppose were in continual activity, suffered 

 practically no loss of weight : they had lived at the expense of the 

 other tissues. We must suppose that in a starving animal the fat 

 and the protein materials, particularly in the voluntary muscles, 

 pass into solution in the blood, and are then used to nourish the 

 tissues generally and to supply the heat necessary to maintain the 

 body temperature. Examination of the excreta in starving ani- 

 mals has shown that a greater quantity of protein is destroyed dur- 

 ing the first day or two than in the subsequent days. This fact 

 is explained on the supposition that the body is at first richly sup- 

 plied with "circulating protein" derived from its previous food, and 

 that after this is metabolized the animal lives entirely, so far as 

 protein consumption is concerned, upon its "tissue protein." If 

 the animal remains quiet during starvation, the amount of nitrogen 

 excreted daily soon reaches a nearly constant minimum, showing 

 that a practically constant amount of protein (together with fat) 

 is consumed daily to furnish body heat, and probably to repair 

 tissue waste in the active organs, such as the heart. Shortly before 

 death from starvation the daily amount of protein consumed may in- 

 crease, as shown by the larger amount of nitrogen eliminated. This 

 fact is explained by assuming that the body fat is then exhausted 

 and the animal's metabolism is confined to the tissue proteins 

 alone. The general fact that the loss of protein is greatest during 

 the first one or two days of starvation has been confirmed upon men, 

 in a number of interesting experiments made upon professional 

 f asters. For the numerous details as to loss of weight, variations 

 of temperature, etc., carefully recorded in these latter experiments, 



