FASTING. 
voured, to ase the cravings of h 3 every 
animal, the most istherene sapien are welcome sus- 
of trees. John Lery, who endured the extremity of 
famine in a voyage to Brazil, Lay ere declared, 
had been ashore ; 
famine from sieges, shipwreck, or the failure of ex- 
Diminution of size, and the prostration of 
strength, are almost immediatel, ent to 
abstinence. The extremities of Datives of 
i ; his arms alone remain withered, stiff, 
and motionless, and as hard as timber.” Extenuation 
and v s follow sudden. changes from sustenance 
on animal to vegetabl 
: e i M1 
known, those who subsist solely on othe aoe 
the latter are not 
237 
capable of the same personal exertions as those copi- 
ah supplied with th e former. Along with vk. 
tion, there ensues the suppression of the alvine excre- 
tions, though secretions by the kidneys continue, and 
it is remarkable that drenching the og frequently 
with water uces an augmentation of the latter. 
Duri is period a material alteration is taking 
lace in the mind; men become wild, and ferocious, 
ey view each other with malevolence, they are quar- 
relsome, turbulent, and equally regardless of their own 
fate as of the safety of their neighbours ; they actually 
resemble so many beasts of prey. The sensations of 
hunger from protracted fasting are not alike in all, or 
it may be, that immediate languor operates strongly on 
those by whom it is not so severely felt. But it is 
certain that, after a icular time, ri ae inclination for 
food is experienced, though great {desire remains of 
quenching thirst. The Genevese physician describes 
his hunger as having been keen, but never painful. 
During the first and second days of abstinence, he be- 
came faint on attempting any mental or personal exer- 
tion ; and a sensation of cold was diffused over his 
whole frame, more ially affecting the extremities. 
Captain Inglefield, of the Centaur, expresses his conso- 
lotary feelings on seeing one of his. companions perish, 
“ that dying of hunger was not so dreadful as imagina- 
tion had pictured.” A survivor of that miserable ship- 
wreck, w so many people hung twenty-three days 
in the shrouds, observes, that he did not suffer much 
during the first three from want of food; that after 
more he was surprised to have existed so 
long, and concluded, that each succeeding day would be 
his last To these examples may be added that of Cap- 
tain Kennedy, who considered it sin r, that although 
he tasted neither meat nor drink during eight entire 
days, he did not feel the sensations of hunger and thirst. 
niess for timely succour, the human frame yields 
under such privations, idiotcy succeeds ferocity, or the 
sufferer dies raving mad. Should the consequences 
not be fatal, Jortings disoneee are frequently occasioned, 
by the tone of the different organs being injured, some- 
times incurable, and sometimes admitting palliation. 
It is evident, however, from the preceding observa. 
tions, that protracted fasting is not so destructive as is 
commonly credited, and mankind may, without 
danger, remain entire days destitute of food. Liquids are 
an effectual substitute for solids in. preserving life, and 
drenching the body with salt or fresh water, or laving 
it copiously on the head, materially contribute in avert« 
ing death by famine. See Philosophical Transactions, 
1783... Memoirs of the Manchester Society for 1785, 
vol, iii. Lerius Navigationes in Brasiliam. Asiatic 
Researches, vol. iv..p. 386. Syme’s . to Ava, 
p- 130. Mackay’s Narrative of the Shipwreck of the 
Juno. Annual Register for 1768 and.1783. Gentle 
man’s Magazine, 1789, Licetus, De his qui diu vi-+ 
vunt, sine alimento. (c 
FATA Morgana, is the name given to an optical 
enomenon, sometimes seen in the straits of Messina, 
ween the Island of Sicily and the,talian coast. This 
remarkable phenomenon, which has nothitherto received 
any explanation, has been described by Kircher, Ange- 
lucci, Se Giardina, Gallo, Leanti, Brydone, Swin- 
-burne, and F. Antonio. Minasi, the last of whom pub- 
lished. a dissertation on the subject at Rome, in 1793. 
Pr on ei nengtiy: me Fata Mor; three ime, 
Minasi yen us. ollowing description of it, 
which we believe to be the most correct thethad hither- 
to been published, 
Fasting, 
Fata 
Morgana. 
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