Loss of weight of the body as a whole is not so apparent, there being a tendency to fat formation owing to the non-use of fat or fat-forming material which is taken into the body.
One of the most evident alterations is a general diminution in the fluid of the tissues, to which is chiefly due the lack of plumpness, the wrinkles of age.

The facial appearance of age is given to an infant when, in consequence of a long-continued diarrhoea, the tissues become drained of fluid.

Every market-man knows that an old animal is not so available for food, the tissues are tougher, more fibrous, not so easily disintegrated by chewing.

This is due to a relative increase in the connective tissue which binds all parts together and is represented in the white fibres of meat.
Senile atrophy is complex in its causes and modes of production.

The atrophy affects different organs in different degree and shows great variation in situation, in degree and in progress.