oM) IIISTORV Of 



come to assign the cause that produces thein, we find the sub- 

 ject involved in doubt and intricacy. This longing eagerness is, 

 no doubt, given for a very obvious purpose ; that of replenishing 

 the body, wasted by fatigue and perspiration. Were not men 

 stimulated by such a pressing monitor, they might be apt to 

 pursue other amusements, with a perseverance beyond their 

 |)o\ver ; and forget the useful hours of refreshment, in those 

 more tempting ones of pleasure. But hunger makes a demand 

 that will not be refused ; and, indeed, the generality of mankind 

 seldom await the call. 



Hunger has been supposed by some to arise from the rubbing 

 of the coats of the stomach against each other, without having 

 any intervening substance to prevent their painful attrition. 

 Others have imagined that its juices, wanting their necessary 

 supply, turn acrid, or, as some say, pungent ; and thus fret its 

 internal coats, so as to produce a train of the most uneasy sen- 

 sations. Boerhaave, who established his reputation in physic, by 

 uniting the conjectures of all those that preceded him, ascribes 

 hunger to the united effect of both these causes ; and asserts, 

 that the pungency of the gastric juices, and the attrition of its 

 coats against each other, cause those pains, which nothing but 

 food can remove. These juices continuing still to be separated 

 m the stomach, and every moment becoming more acrid, mix 

 with the blood, and infect the circulation : the circulation being 

 thus contaminated, becomes weaker, and more contracted ; and 

 the whole nervous frame sympathizing, a hectic fever, and some- 

 times madness, is produced ; in which state the faint wretch 

 expires. In this manner, the man who dies of hunger may be 

 said to be poisoned by the juices of his own body ; and is de 

 stroyed less by the want of nourishment, than by the vitiated 

 qualities of that which he had already taken. 



However this may be, we have but few instances of men dying, 

 except at sea, of absolute hunger. The decline of those unhaji- 

 py creatures who are destitute of food, at land, being more slow 

 and unperceived. These, from often being in need, and as often 

 receiving an accidental supply, pass their lives between surfeiting 

 and repining ; and their constitution is impaired by insensible 

 degrees. Man is unfit for a state of precarious expectation. 

 Tliat share of provident precaution which incites him to lay up 

 stores for a distant day, becomes his torment, when totally nn- 



