23 



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one of these, particularly, the animal drank repeatedly until 

 he had taken several quarts of water, only ceasing from 

 fatigue, and soon recommencing but as soon as the fistula 

 was closed, he drank a moderate quantity and was satis- 

 fied. 



In a case reported by Dr. Gairdner, of Edinburgh, in the 

 human subject, all the liquids swallowed passed out at a 

 wound in the neck by which the oesophagus was cut across. 

 The thirst in this case was insatiable, though buckets-full of 

 water were taken in the day ; but on injecting water, mixed 

 with a little spirit, into the stomach, the sensation was soon 

 relieved. 1 This observation was made in 1820, long before 

 the experiments just referred to upon the inferior animals. 



Though the sensation of thirst is located in special parts, 

 it is an expression of the want of fluids in the system, and is 

 only to be effectually relieved by the absorption of fluids by 

 the blood. There are no nerves belonging to the cerebro- 

 spinal system which have the office of carrying this sensation 

 to the brain, division of which will abolish the desire for 

 liquids. Experiments show that no effectual relief of the 

 sensation is afforded by simply moistening the parts to which 

 the heat and dryness are referred. As a demand on the part 

 of the system, it is entirely analogous to the sense of want of 

 air and of hunger, only differing in the way in which it is 

 manifested. 



Inanition and Insufficient Alimentation. 



The history of inanition belongs more to pathology than 

 to physiology. To make use of the striking and oft-re- 

 peated quotation from the admirable monograph of Chos- 

 sat, it is " a cause of death which advances in the front and 

 in silence in every disease in which alimentation is not in a 



1 GAIRDNER, Case of a Wound of the Throat in which the Trachea and (Esoph- 

 agus were divided across, and which did not terminate fatally, although the parts 

 Jiave not reunited. Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, 1820, vol. xvi., 

 p. 355. 



