286 FASTING. 
‘of Captain and 18 of the Bounty. 
i i 18 men > 
who lied a qrent paren of 3600 miles in an open 
q : 
size of a , was accidentally caught, it served for a 
dntal to (oe whole crew. We dull not be woth ourpri- 
sed, therefore, at the — made by some le 
en hcmselvs, from ‘hich appeared. that ting 
on half a pound of bread daily with a pint of liquid was 
ive of no inconvenience. Still there is an infi- 
nite difference between all this and absolute privation, 
because nutriment is derived from the solids received, 
and these solids may be of very various descriptions. 
Sea weed has afforded many grateful meals to fumished 
sailors. Inthe year 1652, two brothers, accidentally 
abandoned on an islet in a lake of Norway, subsisted 
twelve days on grass and sorrel, and suffered nothing 
in consequence of their diet. 
Few instances can be given of absolute privation both 
of solids and liquids ; but in the case above referred to, 
where 72 persons took shelter in the shrouds of a ves- 
sel, fourteen actually survived during twenty-three days 
without food, though a few drops of rain were occasion- 
ally caught in their mouths as they fell. Some of the 
survivors also drank sea water, but it was not so with all. 
In the year 1789, it appears that Caleb Elliott, a reli- 
gions visionary, determined to fast forty days. Du- 
ring sixteen he obstinately refused all kinds of suste- 
nance, and then died, being literally starved to death. 
It is said, that not long two convicts in the jail of 
Edinburgh lived folarecth di s without food, and recei- 
ving liquids only ; and in the records of the Tower of 
London, there is to be preserved an instance 
of a Scotchman, who, strictly watched, was seen to fast 
during six weeks, after which he was liberated on account 
of his uncommon powers of abstinence. Morgagni, an 
Italian physician, refers to an instance ofa woman, who 
ly all sustenance, except twice’ during 
fifty days, and took only a small quantity of water, 
the died. An avalanche some years ago over- 
whelmed a vi in Switzerland, and entombed three 
women in a 
fla with the juice of oranges. He took no exer- 
cle, slept Tito, ani 
successfully dispelled his religious aberrations: but 
aay Tom i 
ty-eighth from the date of his abstinence. An analo- 
gous case has been quoted by the same physician, of an 
Insane person, who survived 47 days’ on a pint and a 
half of water daily, during which time he obstin: 
stood 88 days in the same position. From extreme 
weakness he lay down during the remainder, still refu- 
sing any thing’ but water ; nor did this extraordinary 
abstinence prove fatal. f 
Perhaps we should find many examples of fasting for a 
much longer period, on ing to morbid conditions of 
the body ; such as that of Janet M‘Leod,a’ Scotish 
female, who, after epilepsy and fever, remi red five 
eee in bed, seldom , and receiving food or 
yy constraint. At e obstinately refused 
sustenance, her jaws became locked, and in attem 
to force them two of her were broken. 
small quantity of liquid Sita ne 
rs. 
ae of 
eS 
palm of her hand. It is not evident that her con 
cence ever was complete, and it rather is to be 
that she always remained in a debilitated con 
After these ‘ i instances chiefly 
to our own wra, to which many more might 
we shall probably be less in us in lists 
accounts of the older authors ; and although we 
refuse to go to the same extent ‘that they have do 
cannot reject those exampl cee 
Pe | +f 
; 
I 
: 
Fl 
es which do not ex 
terms of duration here specified. Yet it i 
to be too careful of imposture, of which the: 
bs 
clines tomake a systematic division of the duration of fast- 
ods, which he designs short, inter~ 
mited to three days; the’ second happens ‘ > 
but life is in hazard, and it embraces an interval with- 
in the sixth day. AJ fasting beyond that time; belongs 
att Me * 
