ABSTINENCE, the avoiding or refraining from any thing, to which there is either a natural or habitual propensity. In various systems of religion, abstinence has been enjoined, not only from all food for certain limited periods, but also, during a particular season, from certain kinds of food. During one of the Mahom medan feasts, total abstinence front food is observed be tween sun-rise and sun-set. The Jews, as is well known, abstain entirely from swine's flesh ; and the Roman Catholics, on some days of the week, independent of their greater fasts, cat no flesh.
The effects of abstinence, and the surprising powers of animated nature to sustain the absolute privation of what seems indispensable to preserve life, are subjects of extreme interest. Wonderful effects, in the cure of disease, are said to have resulted from a spare and meagre diet : One of these is recorded in the history of Cornaro, a noble Venetian, who, after a life of luxury, was, at the age of forty, attacked by a disease attended with mortal symptoms ; yet he not only recovered, but lived nearly one hundred years, from the mere effects of abstemiousness. We arc told of several individuals that have reached a century, a eentuly and a hall, nay, have even approached to the age of two centuries, sup ported on an extremely slender diet, w hick was thought to contribute materially to the preservation of their health. But though physicians have ascribed many singular cures to this cause alone, it is not to he denied, that extraordinary abstinence will also be productive of disease.
There is a wide difference between the faculty of subsisting on a given portion of food, however small, and that of supporting existence under the total priva tion of sustenance. Neither is it to be overlooked, in considering this subject, that, in certain situations, the animal functions arc 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 mem bers stiffen ; and they fall into a profound torpidity, from which they are only to be roused by augmenting the surrounding temperature. But not to recur to such instances, where the animal tunctions are unquestiona bly impaired, w we have witnessed 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 Ns ant of sustenance, have survived Ili a similar situation. OF this, a melancholy example lately occurred, when four teen men and w omen, of a vessel wrecked on the coast of Arracan, lived twenty-three complete days without a morsel of food ; and it was not until the fifth day after the shipwreck, that two of their companions first died of want.
More than a century ago, it was observed by the Italian naturalist Redi, that animals do not perish front hunger so soon as is commonly believed. 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 naturalists of undoubted credit.
A crocodile will live two months without nourishment. Leeuwenhoek had a scorpion that lived three months. Redi kept a camcleon eight months, and vipers ten months, in a state of perfect abstinence. Vaillant had a spider that lived ten months ; nay, its strength was then sufficient to kill another of its 0111 species, as large as itself, and it was quite vigorous, when put tinder 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 enclosed 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 animals living eighteen months, w ithout either nutri ment or respiration, from being sealed up in boxes. M. llerissant covered a box, containing three toads, with coating of plaster, and 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 Fears, without suste nance, in a bottle closely corked ; yet, when he saw them, they had cast their skins, and were as lively as if newly caught.
There are sonic surprising instances of the power of animals to survive long under the privation of food ; and others occur, which are beyond the of deception, such as a decapitated snail, which, though deprived of the very organs for taking nourishment, 'sill not only live months, perhaps years, but will ac quire a new head, similar to that of which it was de prived.
The state of an animal, living in the air without sus tenance. is, in the general case, very different from one living without it in water. In this fluid, we have seen many of the smaller animals survive a long time, with out any other support than is hat the simple clement afforded. IIvdrachna: have been kept eighteen months without any supply of food ; and leeches, as well as certain species of fishes, above three years. Still these instances are not to be compared with those where the privation of is absolute ; because it is difficult to ascertain, w hethei imperceptible animal•ula might not he the food of such animals. I1 has been thought, indeed, that living creatures may increase hi size, without any nutriment ; and it is certain, though the point may probably be explained on different princi ples, that the animated form will unfold by the simple application of heat alone ; and that it will increase its size after it has burst its integuments. Thus, the eggs of fishes, snails, and other aquatic animals, w ill he hatched, and their young attain considerable size, in nothing but water. Vipers also, if taken when jwt produced by the mother, will grow much larger, though supplied only with air. Sec Redi Oime lintnraaii r" iventi, the se rrOVUIff.1 negli Vrornii.
Bufron His/ oire -Vaturdle. Virey sir It Vtrs. Site la Vitalitt.'. Muller Hydrachn,r. Hunter on 'he .dnimal Economy. Phil. Trans. vol. xis. p. 577. Id.
1741, vol. xli. p. 725. _Vern...lead. Par. 1731. CFnmenr.
13071011. t0111. ii. p. 2.21. (c)