CHEMISTRY 



[EFFECTS or HPNOER. 



has aliwly ascertained a diminution of the colourless 

 blood-globules in proportion to tho coloured; an 

 decrease of the secretions after a protracted abstinence U 

 an admitted fact The activity of the gland* of diges- 

 tion, however, doM not OMM entirely ; bat the saliva, 

 and the gastric and pancreatic juices, aro decidedly 

 nished and altered; the saliva become* viscid and 

 saltish. Of the secretions, bile is present in the 

 greatest proportion, though it also it diminished. This 

 bet deserve* so much the more attention, inasmuch as 

 we have to consider the bile partly as a secretion and 

 as an excr. 



It cannot surprise us that a diminution of the excre- 

 tions should accompany the decay of the tissues, tho 

 impoverishment of the blood, and the impeded secre- 

 tions. But although less and badly smelling air, scanty 

 and stinking urine and perspiration, and a smaller 

 quantity of excrements and mucus arc voided, these ex- 

 cretions are just sufficiently abundant to prove clearly 

 that they effect the decay of the tissues as a necessary 

 consequence. In a smaller quantity of urine, in propor- 

 tion to its contents of water, a greater quantity of urea 

 is excreted, which explains tho considerable loss of 

 albumen in the tissues. 



The proper-heat diminishes during fasting, and this 

 completes the harmony existing between all these rela- 

 tive combinations ; for when we exhale less carbonic 

 acid, less carbon of tho tissues U consumed ; and by the 

 smaller quantity of combustible substances which com- 

 liino with oxygen, a decrease of the temperature pro- 

 duced in our bodies takes place. 



A common tie unites matter, form, and function. 

 The composition, tho form, and the activity of the 

 organs of our body form a chain, of which no link can be 

 affected without a simultaneous alteration of the other 

 two. There can likewise bo no activity without con- 

 tinual transformation in the composition, without a per- 

 petual becoming and ceasing to be. 



During abstinence from solid and liquid food, as tin; 

 composition is altered and the forms decay, tho activity 

 of all functions must necessarily deviate from that, of 

 the organs of a well-fed body. In the formation of tho 

 blood, the nutrition, the secretion and excretion, this 

 deviation is easily to be understood, and has been, as 

 far as necessary, examined in preceding paragraphs. 



But the series of the altered functions is by no means 

 thus closed. The muscle, lighter by having left its 

 fat and albumen, appears a flabby flesh, which contracts 

 slowly ; the heart is inert ; the number of the pulsations 

 in a minute is considerably diminished ; a sighing respi- 

 ration takes place ; frequent yawning, a hoarse voice, and 

 languid movements, are all, more or less, direct conse- 

 quences of the deficient nutrition of the muscles. 



A bitter taste, often complained of by starving per- 

 sons, comes from the bile, which is still pretty abun- 

 dantly secreted, and passes from the intestines into the 

 blood, by which it is carried to the nerves of the tongue. 

 As the respiratory action is diminished, the cornbu 

 of that part of the bile transuding into the blood is less 

 perfect than usual : so that a portion remains and acts 

 up. >n tho gustatory nerves. 



In thin condition, Blight stimulants exercise a great 



effect. The light is painful, a slightly elevated sound is 



]>portable, and a touch excites peevishness. IVn-.-ji- 



distracted ; and as memory also r. 

 its service, both sources of our faculty of judgment are 

 exhausted ; for what we have before met with, or now 

 meet, induces the action of thought :iii<l judgment. But, 

 ' judge rightly, we must see clearly, hear dis- 

 tinctly, and feel without disturbance. During sir. 

 nights, the starving person is tormented by eagerness, 

 tho powerful lever of so many passions. He who grasps 

 at carrion and corpses, at the flesh of his friends, or of 

 wn body, shows a wilder longing than the imagina- 

 tion even of poets has ventured to conceive. 



i* another instinct by which the vigour of tho 

 u, in. i is vanquished in a more melancholy way. Hunger 

 deaolatm head and heart Though the crav in- for nutri- 

 ment may be loraened to a surprising degree during 



mental exertion, there exists nothing more hostile to tli.. 

 cheerfulness of an a ul mind, than tho 



deprivation of li.(uid and solid food. To tho starving 

 man, every pressure becomes an inM-Table burden 

 this reason, hunger has effecU- solutions th.in 



the ambition of disaffected subjects. It is not, then, 

 tho dictate of cupidity, or tho claim of idleness, whieli 

 prompts the belief in a natural huiij 

 food a motive to tho force of which Christian charity 

 iUelf must sooner or later give way. 



All honour, indeed, to the charity which, in so many 

 noble-minded people, anticipates and mitigates tho 

 sternness of law. We aro, indeed, far fi . ;in<_; 



the contumacious censure with which the assert. 

 right are often met by their opponents. It is the part 

 of wisdom and comprehensive tolerance fairly to ba! i 

 the merits of all opinions, and to do justice to their 

 respective beneficial result. So much the more, how 

 do wo consider it a duty to oppose tho cogent po\ 

 convincing facts, to the rigorous sentence which makes 

 a human right dependent upon a human grace. 



Cold and rigid, the muscles quivering in tho paralysed 

 limbs; sighing, with troubled cloudy eyes, hlunte > 

 sation, and unsound judgment; the tortured v. i 

 suffering the horrors of starvation in a^ony, 



which often closes in a swoon ; while sometimes a furious 

 delirium will precede the final scene of death from 

 exhaustion. 



34. EffectsofHuii'jer. We have thought it useful to 

 describe the very extreme, consequences of a del 

 supply of nutriment, in order to explain by them tho 

 sensations which in general re-mind us to counteract tho 

 impoverishment of tho blood, by a proper supply of 

 food. The description of these sensations is the real 

 science of hunger ami thirst. For, if tho blood be 

 : .-nt cither in its composition, in quantity, in its 

 ituent parts, or in the rapidity with which it 

 circulates through the organs of our body, the ti- 

 must be nourished by other means ; so ukawiM mint 

 the nerves, for their composition changes also with 

 the combination of their mother- juices. But as the 

 action, and therefore the sensation of a nerve is depen- 

 dent on its composition, it follows that it must feel 

 differently if deriving its nutriment from any other 

 source. 



If abstinence have lasted only a short time, all 

 the phenomena occur which most people observe in 

 themselves when awaking in tho morning. Tho to; 

 is parched i.e., the coat of horny cellules lining the 

 mucous membrane is thickened ; and this condensation 

 goes as far as the stomaeh. The saliva and mucus con- 

 tain less water, and have often an unpleasant ta-.te and 

 a bad smell, as may be observed in fasting-peo; 

 persons, therefore, cannot eat anything in tho nm: 

 until they have cleared their mouth and drunk some 

 water. In feeble constitutions, and also in some strong 

 ones, after a longer fast than usual, tv y of 



blood present in the mucous membrane of the mouth and 

 stomach, is perceived by a vai; isant sensation 



in the mouth and throat, or a pressure, tension, and 

 emptiness in the stomach ; rumbling in the belly, which 

 is hollow and drawn in. Yawning, a sonsatio:, 

 pression of the i i headache and weakness, 



are the general indications of more constituents IK, 

 been from the blood than is compatible with 



a sufficient nutrition of the nerve*. 1 1 

 become then so sensitive, that the least : un- 



oxpc. bodies, or oven an inn 



word, is sufficient to put them out of humour. Tlio 

 of all those phenomena, which aro more or less 

 conspicuous in dili'erent people, represents him 



If li ,:iin foran unusually long timeunall: 



the oppression of the stomach increases to pain and sick- 

 ness. In autumn and winter tho bixly becomes n 

 sensible t. m general uneasiness disturbs the 



im-ntal activity; unsteady thoughts arc wasted in nn-. 

 observation ; and complete exhaustion is preceded by an 

 excitement which only too often impels to unjustifiable 

 acts. 



