CHEMISTRY OF DIGESTION AND NUTRITION. 363 



Supposed wt. of Actual loss of Loss to each 100 grams 



organs before organs in of fresh organ 



starvation. grams. (percentage loss). 



Bone 393.4 54.7 13.9 



Muscle 1408.4 429.4 30.5 



Liver 91.9 49.4 53.7 



Kidney 25.1 6.5 25.9 



Spleen 8.7 5.8 66.7 



Pancreas 6.5 1.1 17.0 



Testes 2.5 1.0 40.0 



Lungs 15.8 2.8 17.7 



Heart 11.5 0.3 2.6 



Intestines 118.0 20.9 18.0 



Brain and cord .... 40.7 1.3 3.2 



Skin and hair .... 432.8 89.3 20.6 



Fat 275.4 267.2 97.0 



Blood 138.5 37.3 27.0 



Remainder 136.0 50.0 36.8 



According to these results, the greatest absolute loss was in the muscles (429 

 grams), while the greatest percentage loss was in the fat (97 percent.), which 

 had practically disappeared from the body. It is very significant that the 

 central nervous system and the heart, organs which we may suppose were in 

 continual activity, suffered practically no loss of weight : they had lived at 

 the expense of the other tissues. We must suppose that in a starving animal 

 the fat and the proteid material, particularly that of the voluntary muscles, 

 pass into solution in the blood, and are then used to nourish the tissues gen- 

 erally and to supply the heat necessary to maintain the body-temperature. 

 Examination of the excreta in starving animals has shown thai a greater 

 quantity of proteid is destroyed during the first day or two than in the sub- 

 sequent days. This fact is explained on the supposition that the body i> al 

 first richly supplied with " circulating proteid " derived from its previous 

 food, and that after this is metabolized the animal lives entirely, so far as 

 proteid-consumption is concerned, upon its "tissue proteid." If the animal 

 remains quiet during starvation, the amount of nitrogen excreted daily soon 

 reaches a nearly constant minimum, showing that a practically constant 

 amount of proteid (together with fat) is consumed daily to furnish body-heat, 

 and probably to repair tissue waste in the active organs, such as the heart. 

 Shortly before death from starvation the daily amount of proteid consumed 

 may increase, as shown by the larger amount of nitrogen eliminated. This 

 fact is explained by assuming that the body fat is then exhausted and the 

 animal's metabolism is confined to the tissue proteids alone. The general 

 fact that the loss of proteid is greatest during the firsl one or two days of 

 starvation lias been confirmed recently upon men, in a number of interesting 

 experiments made upon professional tasters. For the numerous details as to 



loss of weight, variations of temperature, etc., carefully r< rded in these 



latter experiments, reference must be made to original sources.' It may be 

 added, in conclusion, that the fatter the body is to begin with, the longer will 



1 Yirchow's Arehiv, lid. 131, supplement, 1893, and Luciani, Das ffungern, 1S90. 



