220 HAND-BOOK OF PHYSIOLOGY. 



Kidneys 



Kespiratory apparatus 



Bones , 



Eyes . 



Nervous system 



loses 31 per cent. 

 . 22 " 

 . 16 ie 

 . 10 



2 " (nearly). 



(2. ) The effect of starvation on the temperature of the various animals 

 experimented on by Chossat was very marked. For some time the vari- 

 ation in the daily temperature was more marked than its absolute and 

 continuous diminution, the daily fluctuation amounting to 5 or 6 F. 

 (3 0.), instead of 1 or 2 F. (-5 to 1 C.), as in health. But a short 

 time before death, the temperature fell very rapidly, and death ensued 

 when the loss had amounted to about 30 F. (16'5C.). It has been often 

 said, and with truth, although the statement requires some qualification, 

 that death by starvation is really death by cold; for not only has it been 

 found that differences of time with regard to the period of the fatal result 

 are attended by the same ultimate loss of heat, but the effect of the appli- 

 cation of external warmth to animals cold and dying from starvation, is 

 more effectual in reviving them than the administration of food. In 

 other words, an animal exhausted by deprivation of nourishment is unable 

 so to digest food as to use it as fuel, and therefore is dependent for heat 

 on its supply from without. Similar facts are often observed in the treat- 

 ment of exhaustive diseases in man. 



(3.) The symptoms produced by starvation in the human subject are 

 hunger, accompanied, or it may be replaced by pain, referred to the region 

 of the stomach; insatiable thirst; sleeplessness; general weakness and 

 emaciation. The exhalations both from the lungs and skin are fetid, 

 indicating the tendency to decomposition which belongs to badly- 

 nourished tissues; and death occurs, sometimes after the additional ex- 

 haustion caused by diarrhoea, often with symptoms of nervous disorder, 

 delirium or convulsions. 



(4.) In the human subject death commonly occurs within six to ten 

 days after total deprivation of food. But this period may be considerably 

 prolonged by taking a very small quantity of food, or even water only. 

 The cases so frequently related of survival after many days, or even some 

 weeks, of abstinence, have been due either to the last-mentioned circum- 

 stances, or to others no less effectual, which prevented the loss of heat 

 and moisture. Cases in which life has continued after total abstinence 

 from food and drink for many weeks, or months, exist only in the imag- 

 ination of the vulgar. 



(5. ) The appearances presented after death from starvation are those of 

 general wasting and bloodlessness, the latter condition being least noticeable 

 in the brain. The stomach and intestines are empty and contracted, and 

 the walls of the latter appear remarkably thinned and almost transparent. 

 The various secretions are scanty or absent, with the exception of the 



