24 EFFECTS OF STARVATION. 



The first effect of starvation is the disappearance of 

 fat, and this fat cannot be traced either in the urine or 

 in the scanty faeces. Its carbon and hydrogen have 

 been given off through the skin and lungs in the form 

 of oxidized products ; it is obvious, that they have 

 served to support respiration. 



In the case of a starving man, 32| oz. of oxygen 

 enter the system daily, and are given out again in com- 

 bination with a part of his body. Currie mentions the 

 case of an individual who was unable to swallow, and 

 whose body lost 100 Ibs. in weight during a month ; 

 and, according to Martell (Trans. Linn. Soc., vol. xi. 

 p. 411), a fat pig, overwhelmed in a slip of earth, lived 

 160 days without food, and was found to have dimin- 

 ished in weight, in that time, more than 120 Ibs. The 

 whole history of hybernating animals, and the well- 

 established facts of the periodical accumulation, in vari- 

 ous animals, of fat, which, at other periods, entirely 

 disappears, prove that the oxygen, in the respiratory 

 process, consumes, without exception, all such substan- 

 ces as are capable of entering into combination with it. 

 It combines with whatever is presented to it ; and the 

 deficiency of hydrogen is the only reason why carbonic 

 acid is the chief product ; for, at the temperature of the 

 body, the affinity of hydrogen for oxygen far surpasses 

 that of carbon for the same element. 



We know in fact, that the graminivora expire a vol- 

 ume of carbonic acid equal to that of the oxygen in- 

 spired, while the carnivora, the only class of animals 

 whose food contains fat, inspire more oxygen than is 



