MOVEMENTS OF THE ALIMENTARY CANAL. 397 



removed to a private asylum. Before this was carried into effect, I was re- 

 quested to see him. A different treatment and regimen, with a gradual increase 

 of nourishment, were adopted; and he was well in a few days, and within a 

 fortnight returned to his professional avocations." 



422. The time during which life can be supported under total abstinence from 

 food or drink, is usually stated to vary from eight to ten days; 1 the period may be 

 greatly prolonged, however, by the occasional use of water, and still more by a 

 very small supply of food; or even, it would seem, by a moist condition of the 

 surrounding atmosphere, which obstructs the exhalation of liquid from the 

 body. Thus Fodere mentions that some workmen were extracted alive, after 

 fourteen days' confinement in a cold damp vault, in which they had been buried 

 under a ruin. Dr. Sloan has given an account 3 of the case of a healthy man 

 set. 65, who was found alive after having been shut up in a coal-mine for twenty- 

 three days, during the first ten of which he was able to procure and swallow a 

 small quantity of foul water; he was in a state of extreme exhaustion, and 

 died three days afterwards, notwithstanding the attempts made to recover him. 

 It would seem as if certain conditions of the Nervous system, especially those 

 attended with peculiar emotional excitement, are favorable to the prolongation 

 of life under such circumstances. Thus, in a case recorded by Dr. Willan, of 

 a young gentleman who starved himself under the influence of a religious delu- 

 sion, life was prolonged for 60 days; during the whole of which time nothing 

 else was taken than a little orange-juice. In a somewhat similar case which 

 occurred under the Author's notice, in the person of a young French lady, more 

 than 15 days elapsed between the time that she ceased to eat regularly, and the 

 time of her being compelled to receive nourishment; during this period she 

 took a good deal of exercise, and her strength seemed to suffer but little, although 

 she swallowed solid food only once, and then in small quantity. Again, in 

 certain states of the system commonly known as " hysterical," there is frequently 

 a very remarkable disposition for abstinence, and power of sustaining it. In a 

 case of this kind which occurred under the Author's own observation, a young 

 lady, who had just before suffered severely from the tetanic form of Hysteria, 

 was unable to take food for three weeks. The slightest attempt to introduce a 

 morsel of solid matter into the stomach, occasioned violent efforts at vomiting; 

 and the only nourishment taken during the period mentioned, was a cup of tea 

 once or twice a day; and on many days not even this was swallowed. Yet the 

 strength of the patient rather increased than diminished during this period; her 

 muscles became firmer, and her voice more powerful. It may be well to remark 

 that, under such circumstances, the continual persuasions of anxious friends are 

 very injurious to the patient; whose return to her usual state will probably take 

 place the earlier, the more completely she is left to herself. 



3. Movements of the Alimentary Canal. 



423. The motions by which Food is conveyed to the Mouth and introduced 

 into its cavity, constituting the acts of Prehension and Ingestion, are ordinarily 

 considered to be voluntary, at least in the adult ; and it is indubitable that the 

 Will has entire control over them. Nevertheless, they belong to that class of 

 " secondarily automatic" movements, whose character has been already noticed 

 ( 392) ; and like the movements of locomotion, may be kept up when the will 

 is in abeyance, by the suggesting and guiding influence of sensations, thus 



1 There seems adequate evidence that a state which may be characterized as one of Syn- 

 cope may be prolonged for many days or even weeks, provided the temperature of the body 

 be not too much reduced. This class of facts, however, will be more appropriately con- 

 sidered hereafter (CHAP, xiv., SECT. 7). 



2 "Medical Gazette/' vol. xvii. p. 389. 



