FASTING, the partial or total abstinence of mankind and animals from the ordinary requisite supply of aliment, by which is to he understood that quantity'which is adapted to preserve them in a healthy and vigorous condition.
We have already given a few examples under ABSTI NENCE, of the faculty of living creatures to resist destruc tion, while exposed to absolute privation of sustenance ; and we shall now take a brief view of the consequences of di minishing the usual subsistence of mankind. It is a preva lent opinion, that the sudden reduction of food will imme diately prove destructive, especially if to a great extent ; and that death will ensue from total privation, even for the shortest term beyond the interval of gratifying our accus tomed necessities. But nothing can be more erroneous ; for the reverse is satisfactorily established by well-authen ticated instances. • Those animated tribes whose subsistence is derived from the uncertain capture of prey, and in this number man must be ranked in his original state, are in general capable of resisting the impressions of hunger for a considerable period. Sleep' follows the labours of the chase, and diges tion is not conducted with rapidity. Removed from that original state, however, custom usurps the place of nature ; and, on looking to the enormous quantities of food consu med by those around us, we should be apt to conclude, that not less than several pounds daily are required for the pre servation of health and vigour. Probably there is no race of mankind on the known globe, that practises such an in diligence of appetite as a large proportion of the popula tion of these kingdoms, nor by whom any abridgment would be more sensibly felt ; and it accordingly appears, that in warfare, n occurrence of such occasions, the same energies decline, which, opposed to the combatants of other nations, have previously proved successful.
In some uncivilized countries, the supplies of food are scanty and precarious. After enjoying one meal, a long interval may elapse before obtaining another ; yet the inha bitants do not diminish. On the Continent of Europe, the meals of the people for the most part are few and sparing ; and the inhabitants of the East are almost universally ab stemious : a cake of meal, and camel's milk, are the chief subsistence of the Arabians : millions of Indians subsist on rice alone, with water for their only beverage. Nay, if we
look into the state of the poorer classes in some parts of the British domitrions, we shall find many families subsist ing on nothing but potatoes, with scarcely the addition of milk.
But there are countries absolutely sterile by nature, though inhabited by men ; others have not yet been re claimed by agricultural operations, or, if they have, the un certainty of the climate frequently disappoints the labours of the husbandman ; and in this way does the first grada tion of fasting arise. The vast continent of New Holland, except for few and distant patches, exhibits an universal aspect of sterility. The vegetable kingdom scarce offers any substance for consumption ; there is hardly a species of fruit exceeding the size of a cherry ; nutritious roots are rarely discovered ; and, in so wide a territory, the animal tribes can seldom be obtained for sustenance. The incessant pursuit of those of larger size, as the cassowary and kangaroo, has rendered them shy, while it diminishes their numbers. Fishing is a precarious resource, both from the imperfect implements of the savages, from the storms which constantly assail their coasts, and more especially from the migration of the fishes themselves. The lank vi sages and emaciated bodies of the natives of the Andaman islands, indicate how sparingly the cravings of nature are satisfied. They live in an abject and degraded state ; and, like brutes, their whole time is occupied in obtaining a supply of food. Hitherto no attempts have been made by them to cultivate the lands upon which they dwell ; and their whole subsistence is derived from what they can col lect or kill. Though their country be less inhospitable than that of the New Hollanders, and their vegetable diet consist of the produce of their woods, little is bound there which is palatable to Europeans ; and, as they have no ves sel which can withstand the action of fire, they are unable to reap much advantage from such esculent herbs as may be contained in them. Their principal subsistence depends on collecting fish from the reefs at the recess of the tide; and the greatest part of the drudgery of doing so, falls on the women, while the men occupy themselves with hunt ing in the forests.