THE METABOLISM DURING STARVATION 



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ascend. It takes no food. In the upper reaches of the stream or 

 river there is a growth of the genital glands, ovaries, or testes. The 

 whole material for the growth of these large organs is derived from the 

 atrophy of the skeletal muscles. In this case we have the growth of an 

 active tissue at the cost of an inactive one, the activity, however, being 

 determined, not by the direct call upon it from the environment, but by 

 what we may speak of as the ' physiological habit ' of the animal. 



The animal organism, in the complete absence of food, deals with 

 the resources of its bodily tissues with the utmost possible economy. 

 The total metabolism therefore sinks rapidly during the first two 

 days of starvation, and then remains practically constant. There 

 is indeed a slight continuous diminution with the fall in body 

 weight, but if we reckon out the total metabolism per kilo body 

 weight, we find that till within a day or two before death it is a 

 constant quantity. This fact is shown in the following Table of 

 the output of energy in man during a five days' period of starvation 

 (Tigerstedt) : 



METABOLISM DURING STARVATION (MAN) 



Although in one and the same individual the total metabolism 

 during hunger varies directly with the body weight, this rule does 

 not apply when we compare the metabolism of different animals 

 or different examples of the same species. We find, in fact, that 

 in larger animals the metabolism is relatively less than in smaller 

 animals, so that if we take the evolution of calories per kilo body 

 weight the result is inversely proportional to the body weight. This 

 is shown in the following Table, which represents the total metabolism 

 of a number of animals of different sizes (Rubner) : 



