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METABOLISM IN STARVATION. 895
The investigations on the exchange of gas in starvation have shown,
as previously mentioned, that its absolute extent is diminished, hut
that when the consumption of oxygen and elimination of carbon dioxide
are calculated on the unit weight of the body, 1 kilo, this quantity
quickly sinks to a minimum and then remains unchanged, or, on the
continuation of the starvation, may actually rise. It is a well-known
fact that the body temperature of starving animals remains almost con-
stant, without showing any appreciable decrease, during the greater
part of the starvation period. The temperature of the animal first sinks
a few days before death, which occurs at about 33-30° C.
From what has been said about the respiratory quotient it follows
that in starvation it is about the same as with fat and meat exclusively
as food, i.e., approximately 0.7. This is often the case, but it may occa-
sionally be lower, 0.65-0.50, as observed in the cases of Cetti and Succi.
This can be explained by an elimination of acetone bodies by the urine;
a part can be accounted for perhaps by a formation and deposition of
glycogen from protein.
Water passes uninterruptedly from the body in starvation even when
none is taken. If the quantity of water in the tissues rich in proteins
is considered as 70-80 per cent, and the quantity of proteins in them
20 per cent, then for each gram of protein destroyed about 4 grams of
water are set free. This liberation of water from the tissues is generally
sufficient to supply the loss of water, and starvation is ordinarily not
accompanied with thirst.
The loss of water calculated on the percentage of the total organism must
naturally be essentially dependent upon the previous amount of fatty tissue in the
body. In certain cases the starving animal body has indeed been found richer
in water; but if we bear these conditions in mind, then, it seems, according to
Bohtlingk, 1
that, from experiments upon white mice, the animal body is poorer
in water during inanition. The body loses more water than is set free by the
destruction of the tissues.
The mineral substances leave the body uninterruptedly in starvation
until death, and the influence of the destruction of tissues is plainly
perceptible by their elimination. Because of the destruction of tissues
rich in potassium the proportion between potassium and sodium in
the urine changes in starvation, so that, contrary to the normal condi-
tions, the potassium is eliminated in proportionately greater quantities.
Contrary to the above Bohtlingk with starving white mice, and Katsuyama !
with starving rabbits found a greater excretion of sodium than potassium.
1
Arch, des sciences biol. de St. Petersbourg, 5.
* Bohtlingk, 1. c; Katsuyama, Zeitschr. f. physiol. Chem., 26.
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