1888-89.] Paton and Stockman on Metabolism of Man. 121 
Observations on the Metabolism of Man during Starva- 
tion. By D. Noel Paton, M.D., and Ralph Stockman, 
M.D. 
(Read March 4, 1889.) 
Although the metabolism during starvation has been investigated 
in the most elaborate and exhaustive manner in the lower animals 
by many different observers, as yet few observations have been 
accomplished in man. 
In 1880 Tanner undertook a fast of forty days. We have been 
able to procure only a few fragmentary observations upon his case 
(British Medical Journal , vol. ii., 1880). At the commencement of 
his fast he weighed 71 '600 kilos., and at the end of twenty-five 
days his weight had fallen to 60 '000 kilos., indicating a loss of 
about 11*600 kilos., or *162 kilos, per kilo, of his original weight. 
During the first sixteen days he pretended to take no water, merely 
gargling his mouth with it. Under these conditions he became 
seriously ill, and lost weight with great rapidity. After the sixteenth 
day he took water ad libitum , and in the course of the next four 
days he gained 4| lbs. After this he again commenced to lose 
weight. 
On the 1st day of his fast he passed 29 grms. urea. 
,, 5 th ,, ,,16 ,, 
„ 18th „ „ 14 „ 
Throughout the period the weather was excessively warm. Tanner 
rarely walked, but daily drove for some time. He, however, spent 
much of his time receiving people and talking to them. 
A more satisfactory series of observations was made upon an 
Italian named Cetti, who in 1887 commenced in Berlin a fast of 
thirty days. His parents interfered, and his fast was stopped on 
the tenth day. 
A large number of the leading scientific men in Berlin interested 
themselves in the case, and together undertook a most careful and 
elaborate series of observations, which are recorded in the Berliner 
Minische Wochenschrift for 1887. 
Cetti’s age was 26. He was lean, and at the beginning of the 
fast weighed 57 kilos.; at the end, 50*650 kilos., so that in the 
