906 THEORY OF WASTE. 



compounds of oxygen, nitrogen, sulphur, phos- 

 phorus, and Baits, pass off through the various 

 emunctories as dead matter. 



It is therefore evident, that the " waste of 

 matter" is not owing to " the absorption of oxygen 

 into the substance of living parts," but to an ex- 

 penditure of the vital heat obtained in the lungs, 

 and transferred to the different organs while 

 passing through the systemic capillaries, that 

 in cases of starvation, and in chronic diseases, 

 death is not produced by the chemical action of 

 oxygen, and a slow combustion in every part of 

 the body ; but that the proximate cause of death 

 is a failure of the nutritive process, and a general 

 dissolution of the solids, which are reduced to 

 the state of inorganic compounds by giving off 

 carbon and hydrogen in the lungs, while those 

 in which nitrogen predominates, are carried off 

 through the kidneys and bowels as lifeless matter. 

 Thus it is, that when deprived of food, respiration 

 is supported, and the body nourished, at the ex- 

 pense of the blood,* and of its own ruins, that 

 the substance of the brain, nerves, muscles, &c. 



* According to Dr. Le Canu, the ratio of red particles in the 

 blood was reduced from 16-4 to 1 1 per cent, by eight days absti* 

 nence from nourishing food : in another case, from 15*4 to 

 11*19, by the use of a liquid diet for forty days : and in a third 

 case, from 13-23 to 8*79, by fifteen days rigorous abstinence. It 

 is therefore probable, that by total abstinence for ten days, the 

 weight of the whole body would be diminished 50 per cent. The 

 rapid emaciation that takes place during fever, is owing to a 

 failure of the nutritive process, by which the waste of the solids is 



