105 



t 



worn off from the solids of the body. The fluids like- 

 wise are continually diminishing; and hence every 

 animal body, by the very condition of its frame, is 

 liable to destruction. To prevent this, a restitution 

 must be made to the juices and solids of the body, 

 equal and similar to what is lost, and this we call nu. 

 trition. 



It seems to be performed thus. The blood forcibly 

 thrown by the heart into the arteries, endeavours ta 

 go out every way through the pores. But these are 

 usually too small to give its particles a free passage : 

 they can only pass where any of the pores are open. 

 Here one will naturally follow another in a line, and 

 constitute a fibre or part of a fibre. When as much 

 is thus added to one end of the fibre, as is wasted at 

 the other, the body is nourished ; when more is added 

 than is wasted, we are said to grow. 



We see then how absolutely necessary food is to re- 

 pair the constant decay of the body, so that few men 

 or women can live without it above five or six days ; 

 and yet the abstaining from it for a season has its use. 

 Indeed great is the efficacy of abstinence, both in pro- < 

 Jonging life beyond its usual period, and in the cure of 

 many stubborn disorders. 



Lewis Cornaro, a nobleman of Venice, after all 

 other means had failed, so that his life was despaired 

 of at forty,' recovered and lived to near a hundred, by 

 mere dint of abstinence. 



It is surprising to observe to what an age those an. 

 dent Christians lived, who retired from the fury of per. 

 socution, into the deserts of Arabia and Egypt. They 

 drank only water, and took no other food than twelve 

 ounces of bread in twenty. four hours. On this St. 

 Anthony lived 105 years, Epiphanius 115, Simon. 

 Stylites"ll2, and Romuald 120. 



Among animals we see surprising instances of long 

 abstinence. Several species pass four, five, or six 

 months every year without eating or drinking. So 

 tortoises and dormice regularly retire at the season to 

 their respective cells, Some kinds get into ruins or the 



