The general effects of long fasting, however, are highly injurious when not destructive. They are chiefly feelings of great debility, fever, delirium, violent passion alternating with deep despondency. In general the temperature of the body falls several degrees, although Currie observed the contrary in a patient who died of inanition in consequence of a stricture of the œsophagus; the respiration becomes fetid, the secretion of the kidneys acrid and burning, and according to Magendie and Collard bloody, and the stomach is found contracted after death. Experiments on the duration of life in man and animals deprived of food, show that the warm-blooded animals are best able to support the want of food.
But a phenomenon still more wonderful is the faculty that animals have been known to possess of living when deprived of atmospheric support. A hog, weighing about one hundred and sixty pounds, was buried in his sty under thirty feet of the chalk of Dover cliff for one hundred and sixty days. When dug out, it weighed but forty pounds, and was extremely emaciated, but clean, and white. The animal had nibbled the wood of the sty, and eaten some loose chalk. Lizards, especially the Newt, have been found embedded in chalk-rock, apparently dead, but have reassumed living action on exposure to the atmosphere. On their detection in this state, the mouth is usually closed with a glutinous substance so tenaciously, that they are often suffocated in their efforts to extricate themselves from confinement. Toads have been repeatedly discovered in a similar situation, embedded in blocks of stone, or in the very heart of trees. Dr. Edwards, a learned physiologist in Paris, has ascertained that blocks of mortar and heaps of sand possess sufficient porosity to admit enough air to support the life of reptiles; but they all perish if immersed in water or mercury, when surrounded by an exhausting receiver. The duration of existence of the amphibials of the Batrachian family, when plunged in water, depends in a great measure on its temperature. They die speedily if the water be lower than 32° Fahrenheit, or higher than 108°; and the longest duration of life is under 32°.
How can we account for these anomalies? Various solid substances are known to proceed from invisible elementary principles. Do water and air contain them? Metallic stones of large volume fall from the air: how are they produced? whence come they? How vain and feeble are our pursuits, when the vanity of science seeks to penetrate into the arcana of nature; searching and endeavouring to account for the causes of causation! What absurd and impertinent hypotheses have not been broached on scholastic benches! They remind us of an anecdote related of the old Parisian Academy, when one of its sapient members read a voluminous memoir to prove that tides were provided by the Creator for the purpose of bringing vessels in and out of harbour; when one of the Encyclopedian wits gravely observed, that he had no doubt of the fact, since he had discovered, after unceasing and laborious research, that noses were made for the purpose of wearing spectacles!
Although total abstinence from food for any length of time, excepting with hibernating animals, is a wondrous phenomenon, yet it is singular how little aliment is necessary for the purpose of sustaining life, and even health. Many instances of a frugality bordering upon starvation are known. The most economical housekeeper on record was Roger Crabb, the Buckinghamshire hermit, who allowed himself three farthings a week.
Dr. Gower of Chelmsford had a patient who lived for ten years on a pint of tea daily, now and then chewing half a dozen raisins and almonds, but without swallowing them; once a month, by way of a treat, she ate a morsel of bread the size of a nutmeg.
The late Duke of Portland, after a long illness, during which he was attended by Dr. Warren, lived on bread and water for six weeks, at the expiration of which he was allowed one boiled smelt. Numerous persons have been known to live to old age, in perfect health, who never used animal food or wine; such was Dr. Hecquet, the Sangrado of Lesage, who published a curious treatise on fasting in Lent: Paris, 1709.
The following lines were written on a man named Offley:
Offley three dishes had of daily roast;
An egg, an apple, and the third a toast.
Most unquestionably, if this Offley was not a man of hard labour, or who took much exercise, this diet, scanty as it may appear, would have been quite sufficient to support life, for his fare was sumptuous, compared to the diet prescribed by St. Theresa to her Carmelite nuns, and which consisted of one egg, herb-soup, with wormwood ashes and aloes. However, in regard to the wondrous fasting of various hermits and holy men, we must take their histories cum grano salis. They clearly belonged to two classes,—enthusiasts or impostors: enthusiasm, which is little short of lunacy, enables the monomaniac to endure starvation with ease; and as to impostors, it is probable that, like Friar Tuck they had a bonne bouche in a corner of their cells.