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TRANSLATIONS FROM CONTINENTAL JOURNALS. 
neglected, pliysiolop^y has since attempted. Researches have 
been made on the edect produced by abstinence; and attempts 
been made to isolate, characterise, and expound them. In 
imitation of the chemist who tries his new apparatus with 
a white heat before employing it in analysis, physiology has 
studied the effects of diet on animals in their normal state, 
in order to discover that which takes place in the morbid. 
Thus it is enabled to impart useful advice to the medical 
practitioner. 
The divisions into which the author is about to enter 
will show on one part how dangerous the exaggerations of 
Broussais were, and on the other how far the reaction which 
caused his system to be abandoned deviated from a just 
middle course. They will likewise prove that the ancient 
system of medicine was in certain respects wiser than ours. 
Hippocrates, on the subject of diet, was a more judicious phy¬ 
siologist than the author of the physiological doctrine. But 
how am I, asks the author, to attack this vast and complex 
question so as to bring forth all its essential points in their 
natural concatenation? I will begin with a paradox, by 
which I will endeavour to prove to you that an animal sub¬ 
jected to absolute diet really devour its own proper sub¬ 
stance, and employs it to the same purpose, and finally 
destroys it in the same manner as the alimentary substances 
taken into the stomach. We will now inquire in what manner 
the absorption makes, so to speak, eleemosynary demands 
for its support on all the other organs, and how and in 
what form this is gathered and carried to the blood, which 
in its turn distributes it to the organs according to their 
requirements. The interstitial absorption which during absti¬ 
nence supplies the intestinal absorption, to which the ali¬ 
mentary matters have ceased to be supplied, claims an exact 
amount in proportion to size, as a contribution from each 
part; from the muscular system the fibrine and the albumen to 
supply the plasma of the blood; from the white tissue the albu¬ 
men only; from the adipose the fat to maintain the animal 
heat; from the viscera, the glands, the skin, and even from 
the bones; all the different elements are brought together 
and mixed in the same way, as it were, like the mendicant 
who stows in his bag the heterogeneous gifts he obtains by 
begging. In this manner the renewing of the blood, and, 
consequently, the nervous excitement, the muscular contrac- 
traction, the divers secretion, and all kinds of molacular 
action, are secured. 
However, this does not suffice; it is necessary for the 
sustenance of life that the heat of the body should be main- 
