934 NUTRITION AND HEAT REGULATION. 



the body temperature break down from too long an exposure to 

 excessively low or excessively high temperatures, the total body 

 metabolism, protein as well as non-protein, increases with a rise 

 in body temperature and decreases with a fall in temperature. In 

 fevers arising from pathological causes it has been shown that there 

 is an increased excretion of nitrogen as well as of carbon dioxid. 



Effect of Starvation. A starving animal must live upon the 

 material present in its body. This material consists of the fat 

 stored up, the circulating and tissue protein, and the glycogen. 

 The latter, which is present in comparatively small quantities, is 

 quickly used, disappearing more or less rapidly according to the 

 extent of muscular movements made. Thereafter the animal lives 

 on its own protein and fat, and if the starvation is continued to a 

 fatal termination the body becomes correspondingly emaciated. 

 Examination of the several tissues in animals starved to death has 

 brought out some interesting facts. Voit took two cats of nearly 

 equal weight, fed them equally for ten days, and then killed one to 

 serve as a standard for comparison and starved the other for thirteen 

 days; the latter animal lost 1017 gms. in weight, and the loss was 

 divided as follows among the different organs: 



Loss TO 



SUPPOSED WEIGHT ACTUAL Loss EACH 100 GMS. 

 OF 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 



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 (429 gms.), 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, probably as a result of intra- 

 cellular digestion (autolysis), 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- 



