EFFECTS OF STARVATION. 



17 



tion hiu r e sufficient power to place the di- 

 minished amount of food m equilibrium 

 with the inspired oxygen ; in the colder 

 climate, the organs of respiration them- 

 selves would have been consumed in fur- 

 nishing the necessary resistance to the action 

 of the atmospheric oxygen. 



In our climate, hepatic diseases, or those 

 arising from excess of carbon, prevail in 

 summer; in winter, pulmonic diseases, or 

 tho^e arising from excess of oxygen, are 

 more frequent. 



The cooling of the body, by whatever 

 cause it may be produced, increases the 

 amount of food necessary. The mere ex- 

 posure to the open air, in a carriage or on 

 the deck of a ship, by increasing radiation 

 and vaporization, increases the loss of heat, 

 and compels us to eat more than usual. 

 The same is true of those who are accus- 

 tomed to drink large quantities of cold 

 water, which is given off* at the temperature 

 of the body, 98-5. It increases the appe- 

 tite, and persons of weak constitution find 

 it necessary, by continued exercise, to sup- 

 ply to the sysiem the oxygen required to 

 restore the heat abstracted by the cold 

 water. Loud and long continued speaking, 

 the crying uf infants, moist air, all exert "a 

 decided and appreciable influence on the 

 amount of food which is taken. 



IV. In the foregoing pages, it has been 

 assumed that it is especially carbon and 

 hydrogen which, by combining with oxy- 

 gen, serve t6 produce animal heat. In fact, 

 observation proves that the hydrogen of the 

 food plays a not less important part than the 

 carbon. 



The whole process of respiration appears 

 most clearly developed, when we consider 

 the state of a man, or other animal, totally 

 deprived of food. 



The first effect of starvation is the disap- 

 pearance of fat, and this fat cannot be traced 

 in the urine or in the scanty faeces. Its car- 

 bon and hydrogen have been given off 

 through the skin and lungs in the form of 

 oxidised 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 combination 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 dur- 

 ing a month; and, accordiag 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 diminished in weight, in that time, 

 more than 120 Ibs. The whole history of 

 hybernating animals, and the well esta- 

 blished facts of the periodical accumulation, 

 in various animals, of fat, which, at other 

 periods, entirely disappears, prove that the 

 oxygen, in the respiratory process, con- 

 sumes, without exception, all such su In- 

 stances as are capable of entering into 

 combination with it. It combines with 

 3 



whatever js presented to it , and the defici- 

 ency of hydrogen is the only reason why 

 carbonic acid is the chief product ; for, at 

 the temperature of the body, the affinity ol 

 hydrogen for oxygen far surpasses that ol 

 carbon for the same element. 



We know, in fact, that the graminivora 

 expire a volume of carbonic acid equal to 

 that of the oxygen inspired, while the carni- 

 vora, the only class of animals whose food 

 contains fat, inspire more oxygen than is 

 equal in volume to the carbonic acid ex- 

 pired. Exact experiments have shown, 

 that in many cases only half the volume of 

 oxygen is expired in the form of carbonic 

 acid. These observations cannot be gain- 

 said, and are far more convincing than those 

 arbitrary and artificially produced pheno- 

 mena, sometimes called experiments ; expe- 

 riments which, made as too often they are, 

 without regard to the necessary and natural 

 conditions, possess no value, and may be 

 entirely dispensed with ; especially when, as 

 in the present case, nature affords the op- 

 portunity for observation, and when we 

 make a rational use of that opportunity. 



In the progress of starvation, however, if 

 is not only the fat which disappears, but 

 also, by degrees, all such of the solids as 

 are capable of being dissolved. In the 

 wasted bodies of those who have suffered 

 starvation, the muscles are shrunk and un- 

 naturally soft, and have lost their contracti- 

 lity ; all those parts^of the body which were 

 capable of entering into the state of motion, 

 have served to protect the remainder of the 

 frame from the destructive influence of the 

 atmosphere. Towards the end, the parti- 

 cles of the brain begin to undergo the process 

 of oxidation, and delirium, mania, and death 

 close the scene ; that is to say, all resistance 

 to the oxidising power of the atmospheric 

 oxygen ceases, and the chemical process ol 

 eremacausis, or decay, commences, in which 

 every part of the body, the bones excepted, 

 enters into combination with oxygen. 



The time which is required to cause death 

 by starvation depends on the amount of fat 

 in the body, on the degree of exercise, as in 

 labour or exertion of any kind, on the tem- 

 perature of the air, and finally, on the pre- 

 sence or absence of water. Through the 

 skin and lungs there escapes a certain qiian 

 tity of water, and as the presence of water 

 is essential to the continuance of the vital 

 motions, its dissipation hastens death. Cases 

 have occurred, in which a full supply of 

 water being accessible to the sufferer, death 

 has not occurred, till after the lapse of 

 twenty days. In one case, life was sus- 

 tained in this way for the period of sixty 

 days. 



In all chronic diseases death is produced 

 by the same cause, namely, the chemical 

 action of the atmosphere. When those 

 substances are wanting; whose function in 

 the organism is to support the process of 

 respiration; when the diseased organs are 

 incapable of performing their proper func- 



