132 ALIMENTATION. 



kinds of food. He lived for forty-four days on bread and 

 water, for twenty-nine days on bread, sugar, and water, and 

 for twenty-four days on bread, water, and olive-oil ; until 

 finally his constitution became broken, and he died from the 

 effects of his experiments. 1 



The late experiments of Dr. Hammond on his own person 

 on the nutritive value of albumen, starch, and gum show the 

 impossibility of sustaining life, even with a substance so nu- 

 tritious, when combined with other principles, as albumen ; 

 and thus confirm, in the human subject, the observations of 

 Magendie and others on the inferior animals. 2 



1 These remarkable observations were collected and published after the death 

 of Dr. Stark, by Dr. James Carmichael Smyth. (The Works of the late WILLIAM 

 STARK, M. D., London, 1798.) In commencing his observations on diet, Dr. 

 Stark says that " Dr. B. Franklin, of Philadelphia, informed me that he himself, 

 when a journeyman printer, lived a fortnight on bread and water, at the rate of 

 10 Ibs. of bread per week, and that he found himself stout and hearty with this 

 diet," (p. 92.) 



2 HAMMOND, Experimental Researches relative to the nutritive value and physio- 

 logical effects of Albumen, Starch, and Gum, when singly and exclusively used as 

 Food. Transactions of the American Medical Association, 1857. 



