THE GENERAL CONDITIONS OF LIFE 277 



days' fast under his charge. By this case it is proved beyond 

 doubt that under favourable conditions a normal man can exist at 

 least thirty days without food. 



The different tissues partake in the loss of weight of the body 

 in very different degrees. While the cells of many tissues become 

 affected greatly and very rapidly, those of others experience only 

 slight changes. This is shown by the following experiment of 

 Chossat. Two pigeons of the same brood, and of like size, sex, and 

 weight, are employed. One is killed at once, and its individual 

 tissues are weighed. The other is allowed to fast until it dies, 

 and then its tissues are likewise weighed. In this manner what- 

 ever changes of weight that the individual tissues have experienced 

 during inanition are determined. It is thus found that fat-tissue 

 has lost approximately 93 per cent, of its weight, the tissue of the 

 spleen, the pancreas and the liver 71 62 per cent., that of the 

 muscles 45 34 per cent., that of the skin, the kidneys and the 

 lungs 33 22 per cent., that of the bones 17 per cent., and that of 

 the nervous system only about 2 per cent. Fat-tissue is, there- 

 fore, the most affected, the nervous system the least. Of course 

 this difference in the increase in weight of the individual kinds of 

 tissues or cells is not to be regarded as depending solely upon a 

 different rate of decrease on the part of each kind of cell by the 

 cessation of the income of food-stuffs. Luciani, rather, holds 

 rightly the view that another factor in addition plays a role, viz., 

 that among the different tissue-cells a contest over the food takes 

 place, such that some cells seize upon the reserve-substances 

 present in the body more greedily than others, and, after their 

 consumption, appropriate also the material of the other cells in 

 order to maintain their metabolism. This is indicated at least by 

 an interesting observation of Miescher-Rusch ('80). When salmon 

 migrate from the sea up the Rhine they are strong, muscular 

 animals in good nutritive condition. During their stay of six to 

 nine months in the river they fast. Their muscles, especially 

 those of the back, decrease enormously in volume, while the sexual 

 organs develop extraordinarily. Here, therefore, a struggle for 

 existence between the tissue-elements of the sexual organs and 

 those of the muscles takes place, in which the former prove 

 superior and appropriate the substance of the latter for their own 

 needs. Likewise between other tissue-elements in other animals 

 in the condition of inanition, a struggle for existence takes place, 

 although not in so remarkable a manner as in the salmon. The 

 final result of all fasting is always death. The clock finally 

 runs down if it is not wound up. 



The assertion that death is the ultimate outcome of fasting 

 requires a certain correction. It is true of organisms only so long 

 as they continue in the condition of actual life. Organisms in the 

 state of latent life, such as dried Rotifera, Tardigrada, spores of 



