Independent of natural sterility, there are countries which, after it has been conquered by the industry of man kind, are occasionally visited by famine. In Norway and Lapland, during times of scarcity from unexpected failure of the crops, the inhabitants grind down the bark of trees, which, with the addition of a little meal for a relish, is baked into cakes ; and these are represented not to be un palatable, while they are sufficient for the preservation of life. Famine more terrible is experienced in populous countries, such as occurred a few ;ears ago in Bengal, when many thousands perished ; anu such as are of fre quent recurrence in the great empire of China, where they seem to threaten the very extirpation of the people.
This calamity, no doubt, affords too many examples of the sufferings or abstinence ; but those are principally re corded which have arisen from shipwreck, and similar ac cidents, from peculiar mental affections, or from the body beiug in a morbid state, or from the two latter combined. Neither is it to be omitted, that voluntary fasting, in ob servance of religious ceremonies, has frequently been car ried to a great extent. Thus the Mahometans, during one of their fasts, are scarcely sensible of inconvenience in fast ing 40 clays, from sunrise to sunset. In sacred wt it it is recorded, that Esther, the queen of Ahasuerus, when ap prehensive of a public calamity, said, " Go and gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me : and neither cat nor drink 3 clays, night or day. I also, and my maidens, will fast likewise ; and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law : and if I perish, I perish. So Mordecai went his way, and did according as Esther had commanded him." To descend to modern times, however, Dr Percival of Manchester relates, that he was informed by a young Genevese phy sician who had studied at Alompelier, that he then fasted three clays and four nights, without any other refreshment. than a pint of water daily. But during this probation, though his person did not suffer, he was affected with msntal imbecility ; a general consequence of thus exhaust ing the powers of nature. In a melancholy and well-au thenticated instance of shipwreck, which occurred in the year 1795, 72 individuals were compelled to take shelter in the shrouds of the vessel, while the hull was covered by the sea, where all survived clueing five days, without a morsel of food ; but it appears that they were enabled to catch a few drops of rain as it fell, and some of them were drenched with the spray. A term of abstinence still long er, is equally authenticated in the case of Thomas Travers, who, on Saturday the 4th of December 1784, entered a coal pit 270 feet deep, the sides of which immediately fell in. The quantity of earth was so great, that six days were occupied in removing it ; and no one could at first venture to penetrate the pit, on account cf the foul air which was evidently present. Some miners, bolder than their com panions, made a new attempt on Friday, and, guided by the traces of his work, found the unfortunate man lying on his face in a cavity. He could raise his head, but his hands and feet were cold, and pulsation almost extinct. Immediate relief was afforded ; but next morning he be came indifferent about food, and, having announced his own dissolution, expired in a few minutes, on Sunday after noon, after fasting seven days. This example illustrates the opinion of Hippocrates, though it is not corroborated by others, namely, that fasting less than seven days is not invariably fatal, but alter that period, notwithstanding in dividuals may survive and take food, their previous ab stincnce will occasion death. It is to be observed, that here was an instance of absolute privation. In the year 1768, Captain Kennedy was shipwrecked, with 12 com panions, in the West Indies. They preserved a small quantity of provisions, which were totally consumed in seven days, amidst extraordinary distresses. During eight
succeeding days, though in absolute want, both of meat and drink, and exposed in an open boat, the whole sur vived ; but, after obtaining relief, some of the people perished. In this case they were evidently supported by being frequently drenched with sea-water. Sir William Hamilton, in an account of a dreadful earthquake which devastated Sicily and Calabria in the year 1783, relates that he saw two girls who were miraculously preserved in the ruins of a house. One had survived eleven entire days, and the other, six, totally deprived of food.
It must not escape observation, that the difference be tween absolute privation of food, and a supply of any por tion of it, is incommensurable. The same may almost be said of water ; for it materially contributes to preserve life : and hence the difficulties of ascertaining what is truly protracted fasting. The Negro couriers, who traverse the deserts on the western coast of Africa, perform long and fatiguing journeys on about four ounces of food daily. It is said that, in common situations, both they and the Moors are frequently seen to subsist eight days on three ounces of gum daily, without sensible diminution of health or vigour ; and some maintain, that they can fast three days without any inconvenience. The whole store of a courier at his outset, consists only of a pound of gum, a little gril led rice, and several ounces of hard animal jelly, com pounded with a fourth of its weight in gum. This sub stance is decidedly nutritious ; for we are told, that when the whole provisions of a caravan had been exhausted in the deserts between Abyssinia and Egypt, a thousand per sons subsisted on gum, which was found to form part of the merchandize ; and the caravan reached Cairo in safety, without any remarkable accidents from hunger or disease. The compound of the Negro couriers may possess par ticular qttalities in repelling hunger, such as that which, among the primitive inhabitants of this island, is said to have proved sufficient, if equivalent to a bean, for a whole day ; and some of the American Indians, when engaged in long excursions, have similar expedients for blunting the keen sensations which they would otherwise experience. A composition of calcined shells and tobacco juice is form ed into a mass, from which, when dry, pills of a proper size, to be kept dissolving between the gum and the lip, arc made. Without such artificial preparations, however, long and perilous voyages have been accomplished, with out more than a ship's biscuit divided into a number of pieces daily. Captain Inglefield, and eleven men, of the Centaur man of war, which foundered at sea in the year 1782, sailed 800 miles in a yawl, while their sole provi sions consisted of a twelfth part of a biscuit fur each of two meals a day, and a glass of water, continued during ten or fifteen days. Still more perilous was the voyage of Captain Bligh and 18 men of the Bounty, who sailed a great portion of 3600 miles in an open boat in stormy seas, on an allowance of an ounce and a quarter of biscuit daily ; and sometimes when a WI d, the size of a pigeon, was ac cidentally caught, it served for a meal to the whole crew. We shall not be much surprised, therefore, at the experi ments made by some people on themselves, from which it appeared that fasting on half a pound of bread daily with a pint of liquid was productive of no inconvenience. Still there is an infinite difference between all this and absolute privation, because nutriment is derived from the solids received, and these solids may be of very various descrip tions. Sea weed has afforded many grateful meals to famished sailors. In the year 1652, two brothers, acciden tally abandoned on an islet in a lake of Norway, subsisted twelve days on grass and sorrel, and suffered nothing in consequence of their diet.