6^6 Dritte Sitzung der fünften und zehnten Sektion. 



The effect of inanition and a return to normal diet 

 upon the organic substance, salts and water content in 



Diemyciylus viridescens. 



By Sergius Morgulis, Ph. D. (Cambridge, Mass.). 



Starved individuals tend to diminish progressively in their 

 weight and all the constituents of the organism share the loss 

 in a greater or less degree. The loss of water is always very nearly 

 proportional to the total loss of the body. At the end of 51 days 

 of inanition, for instance, the animals have lost, on the average, 

 20.8 p. c., at the end of 95 days, 36.15 p. c., and at the end of 

 125 days, 48.96 p. c. of their initial weight. For the correspon- 

 ding periods the amount of water in the organism has diminished 

 by 19-3, 354 and 48 p. c., respectively of its initial weight. The 

 percentage loss of organic substance has been invariably greater 

 than the percentage loss of the whole animal, having been greater 

 by 8 percent at the expiration of 51 days of inanition, and by 

 13 p. c. at the end of either 95 or 125 days. As regards the in- 

 organic matter of the organism, the calculations have shown an 

 increase in the absolute quantity of this constituent of the orga- 

 nism under the influence of inanition, but the present data do not 

 Warrant any dogmatic statement upon this point, especially since 

 for the present at any rate we can assign no logical reason for 

 this increase of the ash content in the starved organism. Leaving, 

 then, the question as to the increase of ash open tili more deci- 

 sive evidence is forthcoming, we are safe in assuming tentatively 

 that, within certain limits, the amount of inorganic substance 

 remains nearly constant. The organic substance, on the other 

 hand, is lavishly expended, being lost at a greater rate than any other 

 constituent, so that, at the conclusion of the 51 days of fasting, 

 when one-fifth of the total body weight has been lost, more than 

 one-fourth of the organic matter has been vasted; at the end 

 of 95 days, when somewhat more than one-third of the body 

 weight is lost, the organic substance has already diminished to 

 half of its initial quantity; and, lastly, after 125 days, when about 

 one-half of the original body weight has been lost, the organic 

 matter in the organism is reduced to about one-third. It may 

 be said, therefore, that the starving organism subsists mainly 

 upon its organic substance, and as a result of that the ratio bet- 

 ween organic and inorganic matter in the body diminishes pro- 

 gressively, and from the normal ratio 1 : 6.4 it changes first to 

 a ratio 1 : 4.9 (51 days), then drops rapidly to 1 : 2.6 (95 days) 

 and ultimately down to 1 : 2.2 (125 days). 



The rapidly changing ratio between the organic and inorganic 

 substance offers an explanation of the fact that the percent of 

 ash is constantly growing with continued starvation, being more 



