3r. Perdval on the Effe5fs of Famine ^ &'c. 501 



fniferable companions, obfcrving the expedient 

 he had hit upon, of allaying his thirft, robbed 

 him, from time to time, of a confiderable part 

 of his flore. This plunderer, whom he found 

 to be a -young Gentleman in the fervice of the 

 Eaft India Company, afterwards acknowledged, 

 that he owed his life to the many comfortable 

 draughts, which he derived from him. Before 

 Mr. Holwell adopted this mode of relief, he 

 had attempted, in an ungovernable fit of thirfl:, 

 to drink his own urine: But it was fo intenfely 

 bitter, that a fecond tafte could not be endured ; 

 whereas, he afTures us, no Briiiol water could 

 be more foft and pleafant than his perfpiration. IJ 

 And this, we may prefume, confided chiefly 

 of animal fat, melted by excefiive hear, and 

 exuding from the cellular rrvembrane, through 

 the pores of the fkin. 



Perfons who have been accuftomed to animal 

 food, are fbon reduced, when fupplied only 

 with the farinacea. Several years ago, to deter- 

 mine the comparative nutritive powers of dif-^ 

 ferent fubftances, an ingenious young phyfician, 

 of my acquaintance, made a variety of experi-- 

 ments on hirnfclf, to which he unfortunately fell 

 a facrifice. I have been informed, that he lived 

 a month upon bread and water, and that, under 

 this regimen of diet, he every day diminifhed 

 piuch in his weight. But laft winter, a ftudeni; 



H 3ee Annual Regitter for 175S, p. j;8, 



KU3 



