204 DIGESTION. 



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

 ous animals experimented on by Chossat was very marked. 

 For some time the variation in the daily temperature was more 

 marked than its absolute and continuous diminution, the daily 

 fluctuation amounting to 5 or 6 F., instead of 1 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 dependent 

 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 exhala- 

 tions both from the lungs and skin are fetid, indicating the 

 tendency to decomposition which belongs to badly-nourished 

 tissues ; and death occurs, sometimes after the additional ex- 

 haustion caused by diarrhoea, often with symptoms of nervous 

 disorder, delirium, or convulsions. 



(4.) In the human subject death commonly occurs within 

 six to ten days after total deprivation of food. But this period 

 may be considerably prolonged by taking a very small quan- 

 tity of food, or even water only. The cases so frequently re- 

 lated of survival after many days, or even some weeks, of 

 abstinence, have been due either to the last-mentioned circum- 

 stances, or to others less effectual, which prevented the loss of 

 heat and moisture. Cases in which life has continued after 

 total abstinence from food and drink for many weeks, or 

 months, exist only in the imagination of the vulgar. 



(5.) The appearances presented after death from starvation 

 are those of general wasting and bloodlessness, the latter con- 

 dition being least noticeable in the brain. The stomach and 

 intestines are empty and contracted, and the walls of the latter 

 usually appear remarkably thinned and almost transparent. 

 The usual secretions are scanty or absent, with the exception 

 of the bile, which, somewhat concentrated usually fills the gall- 

 bladder. All parts of the body readily decompose. 



