cachexia

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)A systemic wasting of muscle tissue, with or without loss of fat mass, that accompanies a chronic disease.

   “An handful of the Leavs or Roots [of garden succory] boyled in Wine or Water, and a draught thereof drunk faſting, […] helpeth the yellow Jaundice, the Heat of the Reins and of the Urin, and the Dropſie also, and thoſe that have an evil Diſpoſition in their Bodies by reaſon of long ſickneſs, evil Diet &c., which the Greeks call Καχεξία, Cachexia.”

   “[T]he intimate nature of cachexia is a deterioration in the qualities of blood, a favourite doctrine with the humoral pathologists, in support of which many very powerful arguments might still be adduced.”

   “If we have hitherto no approach to a physiological expression for those autopathic cachexiæ in which gout, scrofula, and cancer respectively originate, let it be observed that our faculty of analogical interpretation remains inert, in respect of these and many other disorders, only for want of a correct and comprehensive hæmatology.”

   “One must take note, as well, of the difference between clinical accounts and clinical-pathological accounts. That is, one must distinguish among: 1) classifications based on clinical findings, such as those advanced by Sydenham and Sauvages, which grouped illnesses under such basic rubrics as fevers, fluxes, cachexias, weaknesses, etc.; […]”

   “Cancer cachexia is a complex metabolic process, due to both host and tumor factors, which results in excess catabolism as well as aberrant fat and carbohydrate metabolism.”