18 PHYSIOLOGY CHAP. 



fact is, however, common to all animals, whether higher or lower, 

 warm- or cold-blooded, small or large : they all die of inanition 

 when they have lost about 40 per cent of their weight. This 

 40 per cent is only an average figure, which is not always reached, 

 as in the case of the mouse, and is often exceeded. Thus in one 

 dog the loss amounted to 44*19 per cent, in another 48 '53 per 

 cent; Falk records another of 49 per cent, and Fede one of 50 

 per cent, half the original weight, which is probably the maximum 

 loss compatible with life. 



The process of inanition is of long or short duration according 

 as the loss or consumption takes place slowly or rapidly. For 

 this reason it lasts longer in cold-blooded than in warm-blooded 

 animals, in adults than in the young, in large animals than in 

 small ones, etc. It is to be expected that man should form no 

 exception to this rule, and his power of resistance to fasting should 

 not differ to any marked degree from that of the higher mammals. 

 Very few people, however, believe this a priori, because very few 

 have tried a long fast, and the sensations of hunger experienced 

 after a few hours of fasting make them think it impossible to 

 survive a long fast. Both ancient and modern literature, how- 

 ever, afford instances of extremely long fasts endured by man. 

 We may leave out of consideration ascetic and pseudo-scientific 

 literature, which very often deals with legendary cases, although 

 it records not a few well-authenticated facts. If we confine our- 

 selves to the modern literature dealing with authenticated fasts, 

 we may distinguish between fasts resulting from misfortune, 

 voluntary fasts undertaken with suicidal intent, fasts as the 

 result of disease, and experimental fasts. 



(a) Fasts resulting from misfortune are of very little value to 

 us because they are accompanied by serious complications which 

 disturb the normal course of inanition. A classical example is 

 Dr. Savigny's description of the wreck of the Medusa, which 

 took place in 1816. 



(6) Fasts undertaken with a view to suicide are likewise of 

 little value for the determination of the normal course of inanition. 

 The case of the lawyer Viterbi is, however, interesting. He was 

 condemned to death on a charge of assassination, and starved 

 himself to death in order to avoid execution, keeping a diary in 

 which he stoically recorded his sufferings. He died after only 

 17 days, but he abstained almost entirely from water. The story 

 of the assassin William Granier is less clear as to the strictness of 

 the fast, which lasted over two months, during which he drank 

 from time to time. 



(c) Of fasts undertaken during disease, the case of the alchemist 

 Duchanteau, related by Diderot, is remarkable. He fasted for 

 25 days, during which he drank his own urine. There are numerous 

 cases of prolonged fasts among sitophobes, recorded in lunatic 



