HUNGER. 557 



many instances, furious delirium has closed the scene; whilst, at others, 

 the miserable sufferer has sunk passively into the sleep of death. Oc- 

 casionally, again, so dreadfully painful are the sensations caused by pro- 

 tracted privation of food, that the most violent antipathies and dearest 

 affections have been overcome; and numerous instances have occurred 

 in which the sufferer has attacked his own species, friends, children, 

 and even his own person. The horrible picture of the shipwreck, by 

 Byron, 1 is not a mere romance. It is a narrative of facts that have 

 actually occurred, expanded somewhat by the imagination of the poet. 



Dr. James Currie 2 has related the case of a person, who died of 

 inanition from stricture of the oesophagus, the particulars of which may 

 exemplify the phenomena presented by some of those who perish from 

 abstinence. The records of such cases are rare. From the 17th of 

 October to- the 6th of December, the patient was supported, without 

 the aid of the stomach, by means of broth clysters; and was immersed 

 in a bath of milk and water. At one period he had a parched mouth : 

 a blister discharged only a thin, coagulable lymph; and the urine was 

 scanty, extremely high-coloured, and intolerably pungent. The heat of 

 the body was natural and nearly uniform from first to last; and the pulse 

 was perfectly natural until the last days. His sleep was sound and 

 refreshing; spirits even; and intellect unimpaired, until the four last 

 days of existence, when clysters were no longer retained. Vision was 

 deranged on the first of December, and delirium followed on the suc- 

 ceeding day; yet the eye was unusually sensible, and the sense of touch 

 remarkably acute. The surface and extremities were at times of a 

 burning heat; at others, clammy and cold. On the fourth, the pulse 

 became* feeble and irregular, and respiration laborious ; and, in ninety- 

 six hours after all means of nutrition as well as medicine had been 

 abandoned, he ceased to breathe. He was never much troubled by 

 hunger. Thirst was, at first, troublesome, but it was relieved by the 

 tepid bath. This was a case in which the patient sank tranquilly 

 to death. In others, the distressing accompaniments above described, 

 are met with; and the death is that of a furious maniac. 



The period at which the fatal event may occur from protracted absti- 

 nence is dependent on many circumstances. As a general rule the 

 young and robust will expire sooner than the older; and this will have 

 to be our guidance in questions of survivorship, where several individuals 

 have perished together from this cause. The picture, drawn by Dante 

 of the sufferings and death of Count Ugolino della Gherardescha, who 

 saw his sons successively expire before him from hunger, is in this re- 

 spect true to nature. 



" Now when our fourth sad morning was renew'd, 



Gaddo fell at my feet, outstretch'd and cold, 



Crying : ' Wilt thou not, father ! give me food ?' 

 There did he die ; and as thine eyes behold 



Me now, so saw I three fall, one by one, 



On the fifth day and sixth ; whence in that hold, 

 I, now grown blind, over each lifeless son 



Stretch 'd forth mine arms. Three days I called their names, 



Then Fast achieved what Grief not yet had done." 



"INFERNO," canto xxxiii. 



1 Don Juan, canto ii., 58. * Medical Reports, &c., Amer. edit., Philad., 1808. 



