DURATION OF ANIMALS. 5 



take their rise from circumstances connected with the or- 

 gans of digestion. Noxious food is frequently consumed by 

 mistake, particularly by domesticated animals. When cows, 

 which have been confined to the house, during the winter 

 season, and fed with straw, are turned out to the pastures 

 in the spring, they eat indiscriminately every green plant 

 presented to them, and frequently fall victims to their im- 

 prudence. It is otherwise with animals in a wild state, 

 whose instincts guard them from the common noxious sub- 

 stances of their ordinary situation. 



The shortening of life, in consequence of the derangement 

 of the digestive organs, is chiefly produced by a scarcity of 

 food. When the supply is not sufficient to nourish the body, 

 it becomes lean, the fat being absorbed to supply the defi- 

 ciency, feebleness is speedily exhibited, the cutaneous 

 and intestinal animals rapidly multiply, and, in conjunc- 

 tion, accelerate the downfal of the "system. 



The power of fasting, or of surviving without food, pos- 

 sessed by some animals, is astonishingly great. An eagle 

 has been known to live without food five weeks, a badger 

 a month, a dog thirty-six days, a toad fourteen months, 

 and a beetle three years. This power of outliving scarcity 

 for a time, is of signal use to many animals, whose food 

 cannot be readily obtained ; as is the case with beasts of 

 prey, and rapacious birds. But this faculty does not be- 

 long to such exclusively. Wild pigeons have survived 

 twelve days, an antelope twenty days, and a land tortoise 

 eighteen months. Such fasting, however, is detrimental to 

 the system, and can only be considered as one of those sin- 

 gular resources which may be employed in cases where, 

 without it, life would speedily be extinguished. 



In situations where animals are deprived of their accus- 

 tomed food, they frequently avoid the effects of starvation, 

 by devouring substances to which their digestive organs arc. 



