A.NIMAL FUNCTIONS. 



length of time ; as bread, or milk, or meat, each of which 

 in its turn, was his sole nutriment. But the result shoved 

 that the system is invariably brought into a state of ex- 

 treme debility by such a course of diet, and that there is 

 not a single * article of food, not even the most nutritious, 

 that is capable of sustaining the vigor of the body, or of 

 even maintaining life itself* for any considerable period of 

 time, at least under ordinary exercise. A lamentable proof 

 of this was exhibited in the experimenter above named, 

 who, by confining himself to a single article of diet for a 

 considerable length of time, as already stated, finally so 

 ruined his constitution as to bring on premature death. 



360. Dr. Magendie's experiments. Ds, Magendie, of 

 Paris, resumed the experiments of Dr. Stark, so far as to 

 confine various animals to a single article of diet, which, 

 although it contained an abundance of nutriment, was 

 not always that on which animals naturally subsist. Thus 

 dogs, which are in the domestic state, are omnivorous 

 animals, when fed on white sugar and water alone, soon 

 become emaciated, lose their appetites and sight, and 

 perish for want of nutriment. If fed on white bread and 

 water, the same result follows. Rabbits, which eat hay 

 cabbage, corn, barley, and carrots indiscriminately, can- 

 not live for any length of time when confined exclusively 

 to one of these articles. 



361. It is a curious and instructive fact, that when an 

 animal has become emaciated by living on a single article 

 of food, although it will then receive other kinds of food 

 with avidity, yet it does not gain its strength, but con- 

 tinues to waste away, and finally dies at about the same 

 time it would have done, had the exclusive diet been 

 continued. 



362. Experiments of Sir JJ. Cooper. Sir Astley Coop- 

 er has lately made a variety of experiments on the facili- 

 ty with which many substances usually employed in diet 



What were the results of Dr. Magendie's experiments on animals? 

 What fact is stated about the inability of animals to thrive on other food 

 after being long confined to a single article ? 



