18 ALIMENTATION. 



idea of existence. Starvation overcomes, in many instances, 

 every moral and intellectual feeling, and gives full play to 

 the purely animal instincts. Furious delirium frequently 

 supervenes after a few days of complete abstinence ; and this 

 is generally the immediate precursor of death. It is un- 

 necessary to cite any of the numerous instances in which 

 murder and cannibalism are resorted to when starvation is 

 imminent ; suffice it to say, that the extremity of hunger or of 

 thirst, like the sense of impending suffocation, is a demand 

 on the part of the system so imperative, that it must be sat- 

 isfied if within the range of possibility. There have been 

 instances of sublime resignation in the face of this terrible 

 agony, but these are rare in comparison with the examples 

 of frightful expedients to satisfy the demands of nature. 



The question of the location of the sense of hunger is one 

 of considerable physiological interest. When we say that it 

 is instinctively located in the stomach, it is simply express- 

 ing the fact that the sensation is of a nature to demand the 

 introduction of food into the alimentary canal. The sense 

 of want of air demands the introduction of fresh air into the 

 lungs ; but, though air be inspired, if any thing interfere with 

 its passage to the system by the blood, the demand for oxy- 

 gen is unsatisfied. It has been shown that the real seat of 

 the respiratory sense is in the general system, and that this 

 is referred to the lungs because, necessarily, it is by the in- 

 troduction of air into these organs that the want is met. 

 This fact can be readily proven, as the effects of deprivation 

 of oxygen are almost instantaneously manifested. It is 

 easy to introduce air artificially into the lungs, and by 

 simply interrupting the circulation, or by draining the sys- 

 tem of blood, to prevent its access to the system. The same 

 principle is manifested, in a manner no less distinct, with 

 regard to the ingestion and assimilation of food. When the 

 system is suffering from defective nutrition, as after pro- 

 longed abstinence or during recovery from diseases which have 

 been accompanied by lack of assimilation, the mere filling 



