DIGESTION. 
“The fymptoms of hunger are, firk an unpleafant fenfation, 
- itomach ; increafed fenfib 
yawning and fainting. The pain remits but returns with 
increafed violence ; the mind becomes affcted, and delirium 
or mania clofes the ial = icecream) painful are the fen- 
fations experienced from a priva ‘ot food, that they 
overcome th ft vio! on aotipathies, and the deareft af- 
feGtions. Bones, putrid meats, hides of animals, leather, in 
fhort the moft difguhing fubftances, are greedily devoured. 
The rage of the {ufferer has fometimes attacked his own {pe- 
cies, his friends, his children, and even the fubltance of his 
own body. The ftomach, during abftinence, becomes very 
much contra@ed ; ; and hence we can underitand, how a very 
fudden diftention of the organ, in this ftate, fheuld canfe 
pain, fainting, illnefs, or even death. Hence the neceflity 
of allowing a very {mall quantity of food to perfons in this 
condition ; and of popes our fupplies not to wh 
the appetite demands, but to what the fomach will bear. 
A cafe is recorded in Dr. Currie’ s Reports, of a patient 
who died of inanition from ftriéture of the cefophagus ; of 
which we juft mention the heads, confidering it valuable 
from the rarenefs of fuch records, and the philofophic ac- 
curacy of the obferver. From the 
e was fupported without the aid of the ft poet by means 
a broth clyfters, and was immerfed in a bath of milk oe 
water 5 thefe circumftances, would, no doubt, modify the 
He had at one time a parched acu 3 ablilter 
p> 
cr 
Bo 
17th o . 
was {canty, extremely high coloured, and “intolerably pun- 
gent. This want of zqueous parts in the fluids, ts, no 
doubt, the circumftance, which has given rife to the notio 
of their acrimony he beat was natural and nearly 
form from firft to laft; the puife was perfe@tly natural un- 
til the laft é 3 refrefhing ; his 
{pirits even, and his intellect perfe€t until the four laf days 
when the clyfters were no longer retained. Vilion, was de- 
ranged on the fir ecember, and delirium followed on 
the next $ retina was unufuaily fenfible, and the 
fenfe of touch remarkabl The fu and extre- 
pie were fometimes of a oe heat, fometimes clammy 
cold. On the fourth the pulfe became feeble and irre- 
acer and refpiration laborious ; and in ninety-fix hours after 
| means of nutrition, as well as all medicine had been 
ae he cealed to breathe. He was never much 
troubled by hunger ; thirft was at firlt oohagar nr but re- 
sieved by the tepid bath. Currie’s Reports, 
Many circumftances have been adduced . o ceplain the 
proximate caufe of hunger; viz. the ancrian of the coats of 
the empty ftomach againft each other; the irritation pro- 
duced on its furface by the action of the cecnmuldeel gaftric 
fi 
conftitution at nee or ifa um e impedes t 
nutrition of the body, hunger ftill a scious the fto- 
mach be diftended. ‘This happens anor irrous pylorus, 
, melden: glands the fam vo 
cious hunger in {pite of the quantity of food taken, In 
both thefe inftances, we fee how ineffe&tual all the ahove 
mentioned caufes would be in ex ae the feat of hunger ; 
and again, in the cafe quoted fro Currie, hunger was 
not fe although the ttomach sonia: empty for fo long 
a time. rat hunger is a nervous fenfation of the fto- 
nk feems probable, from its being infuenced, like all the 
& in deadening the acute feelings 
of hunger, and that the Turk:fh and Indian fanatics, called 
Mollahs and eek are enabled, by this means, to fupport- 
their long fa 
hirft is a itive of a = more urgent kind, and requir- 
ing inftant fatisfaction ftill m 
ever, the Saiey mortality m 
ng to the relation of Plutarch, Lyfimachus, one of 
the bravelt fucceflors of Alexander, was compelled to fur 
Thirk 
y of the — fecretions are 
. is one of the 
matory coin- 
plaints, particular ciyinlenatc nee the Rowach, Hot fpices, 
falin e fubftances, and particularly common falt, enc reale i 1°, ag 
do a he differ ent te. etions. ence it 
fhould feem that cs aa of dricking, is to repair the Ioffe 28 
of our 
The fea t ‘of thirft is in the mouth and faucess; which parts 
are not lubricated by the ufual fecretion, and "confequently 
become dry. If it be not fatisficd, a general irritation comes 
on, the fenfation of drynefs increafes, and is accompanie 
with a burning feel, and an acute fever enfues. Thefe 
{ymptoms do not ceafe until a fupply of _ ae] ed into 
the ftomach, reftores the fecretions of the mouth and threat. 
Yet, although thirft at firft appears fo nies drink is by 
no means fo neceflary to the continuation of life, as food. 
Several {pecies of warm-blooded animals, as mice, quails, 
parrots, &c. can fubfift without drinking ; and jedwidwals 
of our own {pecies have, in fome inftancces, by perfeverance, 
conquered the fenfation of thirit. Sir G. Baker hae recorded 
a moft memorable example in the Tranfafitons of the College 
of Phyficians, of a man who lived in perfe&t health for many 
years without drinkin 
Fo very thing nite ean afford nourifhment to an ani- 
mal body mutt have previoufly pofiefied life, and confeqrently 
water; and ubje& to ee {pentane 
ehich conte fermentation, The Glace which ince 
thefe 
