STARVATION. 909 



tissue becomes drier ; but the glandular organs and the brain do not suffer so 

 much as the other parts. There can be no doubt that the drinking of water 

 in starvation prolongs animal life. The smaller Mammalia, and Birds, if they 

 are at the same time deprived of drink, usually die in nine days. Cold-blooded 

 animals live a long time without food ; frogs have been known to survive nine 

 months. 



As shown by experiments on Birds, the effect of starvation is to diminish 

 the average temperature for the first few days slightly, but as death approaches, 

 very rapidly, the fall being, in the last twenty-four hours, about 25. The 

 greatest waste of tissue occurs in the fat, whilst the nervous system scarcely 

 experiences any loss ; so that the lowering of the temperature, and the fatal 

 result, seem to be due to the loss of oxidizable material, and not to a destruc- 

 tive waste of the nervous energy. The fatty nervous substance may support 

 itself at the expense of the adipose tissue ; and this may, in part, account for 

 the great waste of the latter. The effects of exhaustion in long-continued 

 fevers may be similarly explained. The use of fat, as a restorative in the case 

 of starving animals, seems to be, that it interposes an easily oxidizable sub- 

 stance, and so diverts the process of oxidation from the albuminoid tissues ; 

 and, in ordinary cases, it preserves the fat already stored up in the body. 



In the human subject, death from starvation is, though rarely, but 

 too frequently observed. At first, there is acute violent pain over the 

 region of the stomach, which is relieved by pressure. In the course 

 of twenty-four or forty-eight hours, this passes off, and is followed by 

 a sensation of weakness and sinking, which is principally felt over the 

 same part. The mouth becomes dry and parched, the breath is hot, 

 the eyes are wild, staring, and glistening, and there is sometimes a 

 distressing feeling of cold over the whole body. One of the most 

 characteristic symptoms of starvation is the intense thirst which now 

 supervenes. The entire body becomes reduced to a skeleton, the prom- 

 inences of the bones are visible ; the face is pale and corpse-like ; there 

 is sinking of the eyes and cheeks. A state of extreme debility ensues, 

 so that the individual, in attempting to walk, totters like a drunken 

 man. He is unable to make any effort, and sometimes has been ob- 

 served to whine and burst into tears. The voice gradually becomes 

 feebler. The weakness increases in intensity, and delirium supervenes. 

 A peculiar fetid odor emanates from the body, the surface of which 

 becomes covered with a brownish offensive excretion. Occasionally, 

 the mucous membranes of the different openings of the body become 

 red and inflamed. The psychical functions are variously affected ; 

 sometimes imbecility, at others idiocy, is induced. During the famine 

 in Ireland in 1847, mania, which, according to Rostan, forms a prom- 

 inent symptom in starvation, was never observed. (Donovan.) A fit 

 of maniacal delirium, or ah attack of violent convulsions, frequently, 

 and indeed, commonly, precedes death. 



The bodies of persons who have died from starvation present signs 

 of great emaciation, with dryness of the skin, all the fat of the adipose 

 tissue, and so much fluid, having been absorbed. The stomach and 

 intestines are empty, and, like the other large viscera, contracted and 

 reduced in size; their mucous membrane is occasionally found ulcerated. 

 The coats of the small intestine become very thin and almost transpa- 

 rent, a condition considered, by some, as quite characteristic of death 

 from starvation. All the organs, except the brain, are almost destitute 



