While the normal diurnal variation in the fully nourished is about 0.3° to 1.0° C. (0.5° to 1.7° F.), in the starving this variation reaches 3.28° C. (5.4° F.). This rises to nearly double this amount during the latter days of life, and is greatly increased above this figure during the day preceding death. The temperature at the close falls to a mean of 24.9° C. (76° F.), and at the moment of death has been noted at 18.5° C. (66° F.).
Emaciation.—Loss of weight is the most striking and constant symptom of starvation. The rapidity of its production and its extent are modified by circumstances. A very considerable loss of weight can be sustained by the ordinary individual without a fatal result.
Chossat[958] fully demonstrated the effects of inanition upon the various functions and organs of the body in animals, and has drawn the conclusion that a loss of weight exceeding four-tenths of the entire weight of the body is productive of a fatal result. These deductions may be adopted as applicable to the human species. This statement must be accepted as a mean, as it is capable of variation by circumstances, such as age, obesity, etc.
Death may occur before so great a loss has been reached in some cases, and in the obese the fat may disappear entirely and cause a loss reaching five per cent of the entire weight of the body, in a very fat animal, without a fatal result.
Bouchardat[959] considers that the important question is the extent to which the blood and organs of the body contribute to this loss of weight. Impoverishment of the blood by inanition, which at the time of death has been found to amount to six-tenths of its solid constituents, is one of the most vitally serious elements of this loss; and a relative increase of its watery portion appears, without regard to the employment of water as a beverage.
It must be remembered that in wasting diseases extreme emaciation may occur under a liberal diet, and may continue for a considerable time before death.[960]
The muscular system becomes greatly enfeebled, atrophied, and unable to perform its functions; the loss sustained by the muscles least used being most marked. The extent of muscular power possible in starvation varies in different individuals and in various circumstances.
The vigorous and healthy adult, as a rule, retains muscular power to a greater extent and for a longer period than the child or aged person, under similar circumstances.
Exposure to a rigorous climate, prolonged fatigue, etc., rapidly reduce capacity for muscular effort in conditions of inanition.