Atrophy
a wasting of the flesh due to some interference with the nutritive processes. It may arise from a variety of causes, such as permanent, oppressive and exhausting passions, organic disease, a want of proper food or of pure air. In old age the whole frame except the heart undergoes atrophic change, and it is of frequent occurrence in infancy as a consequence of improper, unwholesome food, exposure to cold, damp or impure air, etc. Single organs or parts of the body may be affected irrespective of the general state of nutrition. line alkaloid obtained from the deadly