ANIMALS. 20? 



and some of the butterfly kind live upon little or nothing. But it is 

 very different with man : his wants daily make their importunate de 

 mauds ; and it is known that he cannot continue to live many days 

 without eating, drinking, and sleeping. 



Hunger is a much more powerful enemy to man than watchfulness, 

 and kills him much sooner. It may be considered as a disorder that 

 food removes, and that would quickly be fatal, without its proper an 

 tidote. In fact, it is so terrible to man, that to avoid it he even en 

 counters certain death ; and rather than endure its tortures, exchanges 

 them for immediate destruction. However, by what I have been told, 

 it is much more dreadful in its approaches, than in its continuance ; 

 and the pains of a famishing wretch decrease, as his strength diminishes. 

 In the beginning, the desire of food is dreadful indeed, as we know 

 by experience, for there are few who have not, in some degree, felt 

 its approaches. But, after the first or second day, its tortures become 

 less terrible, and a total insensibility at length comes kindly in to the- 

 poor wretch's assistance. I have talked with the captain of a ship, 

 who was one of six that endured it in its extremities, and who was 

 the only person that had not lost his senses, when they received ac- 

 cidental relief. He assured me his pains at first were so great as to 

 be often tempted to eat a part of one of the men who died, and which 

 the rest of his crew actually for some time lived upon : he said, that 

 during the continuance of this paroxysm, he found his pains insup- 

 portable, and was desirous at one time of anticipating that death 

 which he thought inevitable ; but his pains, he said, gradually de- 

 creased, after the sixth day, (for they had water in the ship, which 

 kept them alive so long) and then he was in a state rather of languor 

 than desire ; nor did he much wish for food, except when he saw others 

 eating ; and that for a while revived his appetite, though with di- 

 minished importunity. The latter part of the time, when his health 

 was almost destroyed, a thousand strange images rose upon his mind, 

 and every one of his senses began to bring him wrong information. 

 The most fragrant perfumes appeared to him to have a fetid smell ; 

 and every thing he looked at took a greenish hue, and sometimes a 

 yellow. When he was presented with food by the ship's company 

 that took him and his men up, (four of whom died shortly after,) he 

 could not help looking upon it with loathing, instead of desire ; and it 

 was not till after four days that his stomach was brought to its natural 

 tone, when the violence of his appetite returned with a sort of canine 

 eagerness. 



Thus dreadful are the effects of hunger ; and yet when we come to 

 assign the cause that produces them, we find the subject involved in 

 doubt and intricacy. This longing eagerness is, no doubt, given for 

 i very obvious purpose ; that of replenishing the body, wasted bv fa- 

 tigue and perspiration. Were not men stimulated by such a pressing 

 monitor, they might be apt to pursue other amusements with a perse- 

 verance beyond their power, and forget the useful hours of refresh 

 ment, in those tempting ones of pleasure. But hunger makes a de- 

 mand that will not be refused ; and, indeed, the generality of ma* 

 kind seldom await the call. 



