44 



METABOLISM IN THE STATE OF STARVATION. 



The cat before death had lost 1197 grams in weight. This loss may be dis- 

 tributed, according to what has been said, as follows: Proteid 204.43 grams, or 

 17.01 per cent.; fat 132.75 grams, or 11.05 P er cent.; water 863.82 grams, or 

 7 1.91 per cent, of the total loss of weight. 



With regard to the general phenomena of inanition it is worthy of remark 

 that strong, well-nourished dogs die of starvation only after four weeks, while 

 man succumbs in twenty-one or twenty-two days. Six persons suffering from 

 melancholia, who had taken water, lived for forty-one days, however. In recent 

 years voluntary exhibitions of starvation have become the fashion. The most 

 striking of these was given by the Italian painter, Merlatti, who, it is alleged, 

 withstood starvation for a period of fifty days with the use of water only. Succi, 

 according to unexceptionable testimony, fasted for thirty days. 



Under such" conditions the regulation of temperature, the circulation, the 

 respiration, the muscular and the nervous activity were found to be within limits 

 of normal variation; the secretions necessary for digestion were, on the other 

 hand, almost abolished. 



Small mammals and birds succumb within nine days, but frogs only after 

 nine months. Full-grown, vigorous mammals, on the contrary, have lost as much 

 as T ^ of their weight (from i to |) before death. In man the decrease in weight 

 is relatively greatest during the first few days. Young individuals die much 

 earlier than adults. To outward appearance the emaciation is striking. The mouth 

 is dry, the walls of the alimentary tract become remarkably thin, the digestive 

 juices are no longer secreted, the action of the heart is enfeebled, the pulse, 

 smaller and of lower tension, is less frequent, the respirations are increased in fre- 

 quency and more superficial, the urine is highly acid on account of increase in 

 sulphuric and phosphoric acids, and its chlorin-compounds soon disappear almost 

 entirely. The blood is poorer in water, the plasma in albumin; the gall-bladder 

 is greatly distended, a fact that points to uninterrupted destruction of red blood- 

 cells in the liver. The liver is small and extremely dark. The muscles tire 

 readily. Finally, great weakness of the wasted and friable muscles develops and 

 death follows amid signs of the greatest prostration and coma. 



The conditions of metabolism are apparent from the foregoing table, accord- 

 ing to which the decrease in the excretion of urea is much greater than that 

 of carbon dioxid. From this it may be concluded that a correspondingly 

 greater breaking-down of fats than of proteids takes place. According to the 

 calculations a tolerably constant amount of fat is broken down daily, while the 

 proteids undergo much slighter destruction with the progress of the days of 

 fasting. Drinking of water hastens the destruction of the proteids. 



