116 



THE HUMAN MOTOR 



days, 180 grammes per day, for a person weighing 55 kilogiammes, 

 or about -33% in twenty- tour hours. ( ] ) 



All these diminutions depend on the nature of the nourishment 

 and on the initial condition of the subject.' 



In professional f asters, such as Succi, for example, physiological 

 inanition lowered the weight of the 

 body in a regular manner. The 

 diagram is an equilateral hyperbola, 

 a curve which approaches the 

 co-ordinates without ever touching 

 them ; these axes are the "asymp- 

 totes " of the curve ; fig. 119 shows 

 three equilateral hyperbola. 



The curve of inanition presents, 

 in addition, two irregularities, one at 

 the beginning, marking the appear- 

 ance of hunger., a phenomenon which soon ceases. At the end of 

 twenty-five to thirty days the crisis is reached. In thirty days 

 Succi lost Y 1 ^ of his weight which was about 57 kilogrammes.) 2 ) 

 First the fats, then the muscles of the organism ore reduced; 

 the nerves being the last to be affected, and this is the dangerous 

 period. 



Inanition attacks the tissues in the order of their import- 

 ance, reacting less quickly on the motor organs than on those of 

 nutrition. Death is therefore cessation of movement and life is 

 movement. Inanition must be particularly avoided in children, 

 their development suffering from it. Even if followed by abund- 

 ant nourishment, the normal development of the muscles is 

 affected. ( 3 ) 



FIG. 119. 



1910. 



Jules Amar, Le Rendement de la Machine Humaine, pp. 79-80, Paris, 

 " 



( 2 ) Luciani, Trattato di Fisiologia Umana, II., pp. 49 



( 3 ) Hans Aron (La Nature, 4 May, 1912). 



493 and 497, 1910. 



