44 
POPULAE SCIEI^OE NEWS. 
[March, 1891. 
fl?edieme etipd pl^armaetj. 
THE FUNCTION OF NUTKITION. 
A PROFESSIONAL "faster," an Italian named 
Succi, has lately performed the feat of abstain- 
ing from food for a period of forty-five days, tak- 
ing nothing into his stomach but fresh water and 
a secret "elixir" which appears to be simply a 
preparation of opium. He kept up his strength 
remarkably well under the o#leal, taking a horse- 
back ride on the fifteenth daj' of his fast and daily 
exercise thereafter. At the beginning of his fast 
Succi weighed 147J4 pounds, and at the comple- 
tion 104% poimds — a loss of 42% pounds, or less 
than a pound a day. He was constantly watched 
by a committee of thirteen physicians, and there 
is little doubt but that the fast was a genuine one. 
It will be remembered that about ten years ago 
one Dr. Tanner created a great sensation by ab- 
staining from food for forty days ; but Succi has 
far exceeded this, although the popular taste has 
become somewhat weary of professional fasters, 
and comparatively little interest was excited by 
this really wonderful test of endurance. 
Although such experiments are not of the 
slightest use, and only serve to give a little sen- 
sational notoriety to those undertaking them, the 
fact that the nutritive fimctions of the human 
organism can be suspended or modified so that 
life can be supported without nourishment from 
outside sources, is of a certain physiological in- 
terest. Succi's feat is not a unique one, although 
very exceptional. The East Indian fakirs and 
other Oriental religious devotees claim to have 
the same power, although in the absence of defi- 
nite proof of their genuineness it has generally 
been supposed that their alleged fasts were fraud- 
ulent ones. 
The phenomenon of hibernation iji the animal 
world bears a certain analogy to these facts. A 
bear, after living sumptuously all the fall, will 
retire to his den on the approach of winter and 
pass the cold weather in a torpid state, without 
food, the sluggish vital processes being kept up 
in the animars body. At the approach of spring, 
with a fresh supply of food in the woods, Bruin 
awakens from his long sleep and reappears on the 
scene "as thin as a rail," but in good health and 
spirits and ready to make up for lost time. 
In the case of Succi, Tanner, and other fasters, 
all the vital processes seem to be carried on as 
usual, — ^there is no abnormal sleep or torpor, — 
but it is very probable that their endurance is due 
to the same cause which supports a hibernating 
animal during the winter : the power of the body 
to draw upon the supplies of oxidizable material 
previously stored up in its tissues, to the exclu- 
sion of that from outside sources. The stories of 
certain East Indian jugglers who have allowed 
themselves to be shut up in a toml) for several 
weeks, and have afterwards been resuscitated, are 
recalled to mind in this connection ; and, as some 
of them seem to be fairly well authenticated, it is 
possible that this power may l)e due to the same 
abnormal bodily activity which supported Succi 
through the dreary weeks of his voluntarv starva- 
tion. 
ITie human body is analogous to a steam en- 
gine ; both are kept in motion by the oxidation of 
carbon and hydrogen, and if the supply is cut oft' 
the one will die and the other cease to move ; but, 
as the fires under the boiler may be "banked," 
and just enough combustion pei mitted to develop 
a slight amount of steam pressure, so it is not 
impossible that the mysterious vital forces may 
o.-iti some exceptional cases — be held in abeyance, 
and the small amount of energy necessary , for 
their perpetuation be obtained, for a greater or 
less time, by the oxidation of the bodily tissues 
themselves; or, in other words, a man may feed 
upon his own body — a form of cannibalism which 
is unobjectionable from ethical grounds, although 
in direct violation of all physiological laws. 
[Specially Compiled for Popclak Science News.] 
MONTHLY SUMMARY OF MEDICAL 
PROGRESS. 
BT MAURICE D. CLARKE, M. D. 
Strychnine in Heart Failure. — Of ammo- 
nia, atropia, alcohol, caffeine, cocaine, nitro-gly- 
eerine, ether, strophanthus, sparteine, convallaria, 
and adonis vernalis. Dr. C. S. Bradfute says that 
none of them fulfils the indications for relief that 
are presented by most cases of heart failure, with- 
out at the same time exhibiting deleterious counter 
effects. An agent which will sustain the circula- 
tion must not interfere with the resalting good 
effects of such action by any secondary manifesta- 
tions, and until one can be found that will behave 
in this manner the problem must be met by such a 
combination of remedies and methods as will most 
nearly resemble the desired drug. 
TTie writer considers strychnine, if not the best, 
at least one of the best cardiac stimulants avail- 
able. A study of its physiological action un- 
doubtedly shows that it, too, has objectionable 
features, but fortunately they can, to a certain 
extent, be mitigated by the conjoint use of other 
remedies. Strychnine is very diffusible; it acts 
quickly, and the effect is sustained. 
When a medicinal dose is administered hypo- 
dermically, the heart at once responds by an in- 
crease in the strength of its movements, the arte- 
rioles contract, and the blood-pressure rises. At 
the same time irritability of the sensory and motor 
nerves and the excitability of the muscular tissue 
are greatly increased, thus promoting nutrition 
changes and mechanically favoring a rapid blood- 
current. A spasmodic contraction of the renal 
capillaries is likely to occur if large doses are 
given, l)ut the interference with the kidney secre- 
tion can be obviated by diuretics having a selective 
action upon the urinary organs. Lately strych- 
nine has been strongly recommended by gome 
eminent observers as a reliable agent when other 
members of the group of cardiac tonics are contra- 
indicated, and to the writer, who used it a great 
deal while resident physician in the Pennsylvania 
Hospital, it has proved very satisfactory. The 
stimulation is not confined to the circulatory sys- 
tem, but is general, and in many respects very 
much resembles the effects of heat. 
Its characteristic effect upon the spinal cord no 
doubt tones up, so to speak, through the sympa- 
thetic nerves, the digestive function, which, with 
the diffused stimulation of the circulatory system, 
must certainly result in a supply of better blood 
to the nerve centers, and consequently to promo- 
tion of the vital functions. 
A curious fact in connection with the action of 
strychnine is that the weaker the circulation the 
larger is the amount necessary. Its action seems 
to l)e in a way neutralized by the causes inducing 
the weakness, requiring, in some instances, rapidly 
increasing doses to maintain the effect. Dr. C. B. 
Penrose informs the writer that he has given 
hypodermically as much as two grains of the sul- 
phate of strychnine in twenty-four hours, with 
the result of successfully tiding the patient over a 
crisis.— Jfed. News. 
A Prolonged Form of Acute CocAmiSM. — 
At a meeting of the Paris Acadenii? d? Medecine 
M. Hallopeau presented a communication, in 
which, after distinguishing two forms of cocaine 
poisoning, — namely, the acute, in which the symp- 
toms are produced immediately after a dose and 
speedily pass off; and the chronic, in which they 
are due to the prolonged use of the drug, — he re- 
lated a case which, in his opinion, showed that the 
poisonous effects, while coming on acutely, might 
last for a considerable time. 
A man had about eight milligrams of hydro- 
chlorate of cocaine injected into his gum as a 
preliminary to the extraction of a tooth. Toxic 
symptoms at once supervened. There was in- 
tense precordial oppression, with thready pulse, 
extreme excitement, and loquacity; the patient 
walked about the room, hitting out at random 
with his fists, and crying out that he was dying. 
In ten minutes he became quiet and the tooth was 
extracted, after which he was able to walk home, 
arriving there, however, in a state of extreme 
prostration. Then ensued a train of nervous 
symptoms, such as continual headache, intracta- 
ble sleeplessness, bad taste in the mouth, with 
occasional attacks of excitement accompanied by 
giddiness, faintness, and a sense of impending 
death. All brain work was impossible; the pa- 
tient could not do the simplest sum in arithmetic, 
and was in a state of profound depression. A 
sense of formication and numbness in the hands 
and forearms was almost incessant. This condi- 
tion lasted four months, and it was two months 
after the injection before the least improvement 
was observed, and then progress toward recovery 
was slow. 
M. Hallopeau thinks the symptoms indicate a 
poisonous action of cocaine on the nervous cen- 
ters, and especially the brain. As it is impossi- 
ble to suppose that so small a quantity of the 
drug should have remained in circulation, he ia 
driven to conclude either that it was stored up in 
the cells of certain nervous centers or that it pro- 
duced in them persistent lesions. The prognosis 
in such cases is serious, in the sense that the ill- 
ness is severe and may be protracted, and the dis- 
ablement for business is complete whUe it lasts. — 
Brit. Med. Jour. 
The Struggle Between Cells and Bacte- 
ria. — The bacteria which cause some diseases, 
writes Dr. H. T. Bewley, may perish in the body 
without the organism taking any active part in 
their destruction. In many diseases, however, 
the cells of the body must take an active part 
against the invading germs. In some cases they 
seem to do so by enclosing the bacteria in their 
protoplasm, or devouring them, killing and digest- 
ing them. The most conclusive case of this is the 
daphnia disease, in which the phagocytes seem to 
be the chief if not the only agency that destroys 
the fungus. In larger and more complete animals 
the cells may overcome bacteria by devouring 
them; or they may form some chemical substance 
which poisons the bacteria, or they may destroy 
them by means of some vital influence or power. 
The theory of phagocytosis may have a very 
widely extended scope: it has not been proved 
that it has not. On the other hand, it has not 
been fully proved that it has. — Provinc. Med. Jour. 
Typhoid Fever in a Child of Eight Months. 
— Dr. Frank R. England, in the Canada Medical 
Record, reports a typical case of typhoid fever in 
a male child of eight months. In confirmation of 
the diagnosis the author records the existence of 
three other cases of typhoid fever in the same 
household at about the same time. Tlie babe was 
artificially fed, and the disease developed after a 
sojourn in the country. 
