ABSTERGENTS. 
Sap; and elucidations of other departments of 
vegetable physiology will be given in numerous 
articles,—particularly those on ArRatrion, ANA- 
tomy oF Piants, Brerpine, Cambium, CELLULAR 
Trssuz, Decay, Euaporation, Excrrasriity, Fx- 
CUNDATION, GERMINATION, InRiTaBiLity, Lear, 
Lirr, MorpHotoey, Puyrontoey, Piru, Portan, Rx- 
GENERATION, Root, Sap, SEXUALITY, SLEEP, SPIRAL 
VessEts, Stem, Suscepripitity, and VascuLaR 
Orcans.—Duhamel, Physique des Arbres, 1758.— 
Bonnet, Recherches sur Vusage des Feuilles dans les 
Plantes—Darwin’s Phytologia—Saussure, Recher- 
ches chimique sur la Végétation, 1804.—Keith.— 
Knight. Ellis—Memoir by M. A. Brongniart in 
the Annales des Sciences, for December, 1830.—Dau- 
beny’s Memoir on the degree of selection exercised by 
Plants with regard to the earthy constituents pre- 
| sented to their absorbing surfaces. Printed in the 
Linnean Society’s Transactions for 1833. 
| ABSTERGENTS. Medicines or medicinal ap- 
plications which clear away impurities from the 
| animal system. They chiefly consist of saponace- 
ous and stimulating applications for the reduc- 
tion and removal of tumours and concretions from 
the joints and other parts of animals. 
ABSTINENCE. The temporary privation of an 
animal’s food or drink. The necessity for a supply 
of food is felt by all animals, yet it is not experi- 
enced in an equal degree by all species, nor by 
animals of the same species, nor even by the same 
' animal when placed in different circumstances. 
The appetite for food is heightened by youth, 
fatigue, long-continued want of sleep, by violent 
passions when the paroxysm has passed, by con- 
valescence after a long illness, by a dry and cold 
| air, and by the influence of climates and seasons, 
On the other hand, old age, prolonged sleep, 
hybernation, perfect repose, and hot baths, di- 
minish the necessity for food. With the human 
species, luxurious habits lead to a loss of appetite, 
while it is heightened by labour ; and thus hunger, 
which declines the invitation of the opulent epi- 
cure, comes an unwelcome guest into the hovels 
of the destitute. ! 
There is a wide difference between the faculty 
of existing on a given portion of food, however 
small, and under the total privation ofit. Neither 
is it to be overlooked, in considering this subject, 
that, in certain situations, the animal functions 
are feebly maintained. Numerous animals are 
destined to pass a large portion of their existence 
in a state of absolute insensibility. On the simple 
approach of cold, without any other known cause, 
they become languid and inactive ; their members 
stiffen; and they fall into a profound torpidity, 
from which they are only to be aroused by aug- 
menting the surrounding temperature. But not 
to recur to such instances, where the animal func- 
tions are unquestionably impaired, we have wit- 
nessed many cases of beasts, birds, fishes, and 
insects, living incredibly long in a condition of 
total abstinence; and even some human beings, 
who, of all animals, can least support the want of 
ABSTINENCE. 
sustenance, have survived in a similar situa- | 
tion. 
More than a century ago, it was observed by 
the Italian naturalist Redi, that animals do not 
perish from hunger so soon as is commonly be- 
lieved. A civet-cat lived ten days with him ; 
wild pigeons, twelve and thirteen; an antelope, 
twenty; and a very large wild cat, the same 
time, without food. A royal eagle survived | 
twenty-eight days ; and Buffon mentions one that 
lived five weeks without food; a badger lived a | 
month; and several dogs, thirty-six days. We 
have accounts still more surprising, from natu- 
ralists of undoubted credit. A crocodile will live 
two months wanting food. Leeuwenhoek had a 
scorpion that lived three months. Redi kept a 
cameleon eight months in a state of perfect ab- 
stinence, and vipers, ten. Vaillant had a spider 
that lived the same time; nay, its strength was 
then sufficient to kill another of its own species, 
as large as itself, and quite vigorous, when put | 
under the receiver where it was kept. According 
| 
to several authors, some of those animals that 
have long supported the privation of food, did 
not become nearly so much emaciated as might 
reasonably be supposed. Mr. John Hunter en- 
closed a toad between two stone flower-pots ; and, 
at the end of fourteen months, it was as lively as 
ever. M. Sue quotes instances of the same ani- 
mals living eighteen months, without either food | 
or respiration, from being sealed up in boxes. M. 
Herissant covered a box, containing three toads, | 
with a coating of plaster. On opening it eighteen | 
months afterwards, one was still alive. Land 
tortoises lived eighteen months with Redi; and 
Baker kept a beetle without food three complete 
years, when it escaped. Dr. Shaw mentions two | 
Egyptian serpents that had been preserved for | 
the period of five years, wanting sustenance, in a | 
bottle closely corked; yet, when he saw them, | 
they had cast their skins, and were as lively as | 
if newly caught. 
In general, the carnivorous animals endure a | 
long-continued fast with less inconvenience than | 
the herbivorous. This remark must not be con- 
fined to mammalia, for it extends to the birds of | 
prey, especially to the eagle, to serpents, and 
spiders, all which animals can remain a very long 
time without food, and do not appear to suffer 
from their continued abstinence. On this ac- 
count they are in general of a more meagre habit 
of body than such animals as live either on herbs 
or fruits. There are many instances on record 
of old men, but more especially of women, who 
have lived for several weeks, some say months, | 
without food. A mad enthusiast, who imagined 
himself to be Christ in person, remained, it is 
said, during the forty days of Lent without using 
any food whatever; but confined himself, without 
swallowing any thing, merely to washing his 
mouth with water or wine. ‘These instances are 
not, however, always very well authenticated ; 
and it would be difficult to prove, in this case, 
See 
