FASTING, in ordinary language, the act or state of abstaining partially or entirely from food. In medicine, loss of appetite without any other apparent of fection of the stomach; so that the sys tern can sustain almost total abstinence for a long time without fainting. For a number of years a lively discussion has been carried on as to the length of time a human being could exist while volun tarily fasting. Dr. Tanner, in New York City, fasted for 40 days without any ill effects, and his fast found several imita tors. Nothing of scientific value resulted from the experiment. Terence McSwiney, Lord-Mayor of Cork, Ireland, refused food while in prison, and died on the 63d day of his fast, in October, 1920. Other Irish prisoners carried on a food strike for over fifty days and several of them died. See IRELAND.
Among the Ethnic Nations.—Its chief object was to produce religious exalta tion, with visions, dreams, and imagined intercourse with superior beings. Fast ing exists for this purpose among the North American Indians and many other tribes. Dreams, visions, etc., thus pro duced are not supernatural, but morbid.
Among the Jews.—It was practiced in seasons of affliction, nature having in a manner prescribed this by taking hunger away during keen sorrow (I Sam. xxxi: 13; Esther iv.) ; to chasten or humble the soul (Psalm xxxv: 13; lxix: 10).
Among Christians. — Jesus miracu lously fasted 40 days and nights (Matt. iv: 2; Luke iv: 2), as Moses and Elijah had done previously (Exod. xxxiv: 28; I Kings xix: 8), and as several Roman saints claim to have done since. The
practice is not, however, formally en joined in the New Testament, though our Lord indirectly sanctioned it (Matt. vi.: 16-18), as did St. Paul (I Cor. vii: 5). The apostles and the Church of which they constituted a part practiced it on specially solemn occasions (Acts xiii: 2; xiv: 23). In the Roman and Greek obedi ence, communion must be received fast ing, except when administered by way of viaticum.
FAT, in anatomy, an animal substance of a more or less oily character deposited in vesicles in adipose tissue. It forms a considerable layer under the skin, is col lected in large quantity around certain organs, as, for instance, the kidneys, fills up furrows on the surface of the heart, surrounds joints, and exists in large quantity in the marrow of bones. It gives to the surface of the human frame its smooth, rounded contour. In chemistry, fats are glycerides of acids belonging to the fatty or acetic series and of acids belonging to the acrylic se ries, being the ethers of the triatomic alcohol glycerine. They are insoluble in water, but soluble in ether. They vary in consistence from a thin oil (olive oil) to a hard, greasy substance (suet). When fats are boiled with any caustic alkali they are decomposed, and yield an alka line salt of the fatty acid (see SOAP), and GLYCERINE (q. v.). In printing, copy which affords light work, as blank or short pages or lines. The fat is in the fire: All is confusion, or all has failed.