VOL. XXXVI.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 415 



capable of stimulating the brain and nerves, so as to produce a fever, delirium 

 or madness. But in the case under consideration, no gall could enter into the 

 blood: and therefore this degree of putrefaction, and its effects, could not 

 happen; though it must be owned, that, through a want of recruit and dilu- 

 tion, a lower degree of putrefaction of the blood and humours must have fol- 

 lowed, even in this case, from the' continual attrition in circulation; such at 

 least as was sufficient to render the whole mass in a few days unfit for any of 

 the uses in the animal economy, or the functions of life : and therefore may 

 be justly supposed to have been the immediate cause of death. For all the 

 passive principles or materials of putrefaction, being actually in the substance 

 of the blood, and all the active principles of heat and attrition being at work 

 upon it to produce this effect, it could not fail to be brought about in a few 

 days ; and the same would happen to all animals, if what is effete, corrupted 

 or altered, so as to be unfit for the use of the animal, was not continually car- 

 ried off by the emunctories, and a fresh recruit daily supplied from the primae 

 viae ; which evacuations and supply being kept up in their due quantity and pro- 

 portion, do effectually prevent all putrefaction and acrimony, and keep the blood 

 and humours in their natural temperature. 



It is not then a defect in the quantity of fluids which kills an animal in fast- 

 ing, but a poisonous acrimony, which the blood and humours naturally con- 

 tract, for want of a fresh recruit and equal evacuation. Thus in chronical dis- 

 tempers, where the person appears extenuated and exhausted, the quantity of 

 the fluids is certainly very small, yet enough to maintain life for some months 

 or years, being kept in some degree of sweetness or proper temperature, by a 

 certain proportion of recruit and evacuation: but where the recruit is entirely 

 withheld, the evacuations will be proportionally lessened: and therefore the 

 quantity of fluids may remain much the same, but the quality will alter, and 

 putrefaction, for the reasons above assigned, must take place, and be the imme- 

 diate cause of death, even long before the mass of fluids can be much diminished 

 in quantity, as in the case before us. 



Another objection may be, how the pulse should continue full, strong, and 

 equal for several days, while the person was in a starving condition, and the 

 blood had no recruit from the primae viae? — This indeed would be very unac- 

 countable, if the waste of the blood and humours were supposed to continue 

 at the same height as before the accident, and the evacuations by the emunc- 

 tories were the same as in perfect health. In this manner the contents of the 

 blood-vessels would be soon wasted and exhausted; but Sanctorius's observa- 

 tions and experiments show, that the daily recruits and evacuations keep pace 

 with each other, and are nearly equal in 24 hours in a healthy state; and there- 



