Observations on the metabolism of man during starvation / by D. Noel Paton and Ralph Stockman.

Date:
[1889]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the metabolism of man during starvation / by D. Noel Paton and Ralph Stockman. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    5/12 (page 125)
    inflamed. His pulse was 84 at 12 noon, the only occasion on which it rose so high ; but his temperature was only 96°-8-97°-8 F. Since a few days after the completion of his fast he had a well-marked attack of gout, it is fair to conclude that this also was a slight attack of the same disease. One very important point, upon which we hoped to gain valuable information, was the influence of exercise on the metabolism during starvation. Unfortunately, it was not possible to get results at all satisfactory. In the first place, the amount of exercise taken was exceedingly small; in the second place, it was not easy to estimate the precise amount of exercise taken daily. Inasmuch as during the hours spent indoors practically no exercise was indulged in, we came to the conclusion that the most satisfactory results might be arrived at by taking, as a measure of the muscular exercise, the duration of his daily walks. It is to be regretted that the conditions of the fast and the pres- sure of other work rendered it impossible for us to undertake anything like the complete series of observations carried out in Cetti's case. The following observations only could be accomplished :— The weight was daily taken before Jacques had dressed. The amount of fluid consumed was carefully measured. The urine passed was all collected and measured. Its reaction was taken, and the amount of urea estimated by the hypobromite method—Dupre's apparatus, previously tested on standard solutions of urea, beincr used. A record of the pulse, temperature, and general condition was also kept. From the urea the daily waste of flesh was calculated. By this term is, of course, meant not merely the muscle substance, but all the various tissues of the body containing nitrogen in the proportion in which this occurs in muscle. The diff'erence between this and the total loss of weight gave the loss of non-nitrogenous substances. These non-nitrogenous wasting substances are the fats and carbohydrates; but inasmuch as the latter occur only in small quantities, and are rapidly used up, they may be neglected, and we may consider these non-nitrogenous matters as practically entirely composed of fat. Of course, the possibility of variations in the percentage amount of water in the body had to be considered, and in all probability this