252 DIGESTION. 



with symptoms of nervous disorder, delirium, or con- 

 vulsions. 



(4). In the human subject death commonly occurs 

 within six to ten days after total deprivation of food. But 

 this period may be considerably prolonged by taking a 

 very small quantity of food, or even water only. The 

 cases so frequently related of survival after many days, or 

 even some weeks, of abstinence, have been due either to 

 the last-mentioned circumstances, or to others less effectual, 

 which prevented the loss of heat and moisture. Cases in 

 which life has continued after total abstinence from food 

 and drink for many weeks, or months, exist only in the 

 imagination of the vulgar. 



(5). The appearances presented after death from starva- 

 tion are those of general wasting and bloodlessness, the 

 latter condition being least noticeable in the brain. The 

 stomach and intestines are empty and contracted, and the 

 walls of the latter usually appear remarkably thinned and 

 almost transparent. The usual secretions are scanty or 

 absent, with the exception of the bile, which, somewhat 

 concentrated, usually fills the gall-bladder. All parts of 

 the body readily decompose. 



It has just been remarked that man can live upon 

 animal matters alone, or upon vegetables. The structure 

 of his teeth, however, as well as experience, seems 

 to declare that he is best fitted for a mixed diet ; and 

 the same inference may be readily gathered from other 

 facts and considerations. Thus, the food a man takes 

 into his body daily, represents or ought to represent the 

 quantity and kind of matter necessary for replacing that 

 which is daily cast out by the way of lungs, skin, kidneys, 

 and other organs. To find out, therefore, the quantity 

 and kind of food necessary for a healthy man, it will, 

 evidently, be the best plan to consider in the first place 

 what he loses by excretion. 



