The practice of fasting was retained by the Protestant Reformers in Europe. In England it was rigorously enforced by parliamentary sanction, as shown in the acts of Edward VI and James I, and the proclamations of Eliza beth; but the abstinence from flesh-meat on fast days appears to have been enjoined mainly as an aid to the fishing and shipbuilding indus tries. In Scotland pre-communion fast days were appointed by the Presbyterian Church, when business was entirely suspended; but within recent times these have fallen almost entirely into desuetude.
Our Puritan forefathers brought with them to New England the practice of occasional ap pointments for special causes, named by the churches as well as by civil authority. The day before they left Leyden (21 July 1620), being ready to depart they had a day of solemn humiliation? in anticipation of the voyage. Owing to a series of misfortunes that befell the Plymouth colony a solemn fast day was ap pointed, to be observed on Wednesday, 16 Judy 1623 (Old Style). The prejudice against popish and prelatical ordinances made the observance of Lent or of Good Friday obnoxious to the founders of New England, and no considerable change of sentiment in this regard took place till after the Revolutionary War. The occa sional spring fast gradually passed into an annual• appointment; but there was no annual spring fast previous to King Philip's War (1675-76). After the winning of independence, fast days were occasionally appointed. Coming to recent times, one was enjoined in 1849 on account of the cholera visitation; they were ob served on both sides during the Civil War; and on the death of Abraham Lincoln (14 April 1865) a solemn fast was proclaimed for the 1st of June of that year.
Fasting is observed with great severity in the Greek Church. The fasts extend over three parts of the year. The Easter fast, extending for 48 days; the Advent fast for 39 days; the fast of the Virgin for 14 days, and that of the Apostles begins on the Monday after Trinity and extends to the 29th of June.
Mohammedanism has adopted the practice of fasting from Jewish and Christian sources. In addition to voluntary fasting during the month of Ramadan (in which the Prophet brought the Koran from heaven), eating, drink ing, smoking and smelling perfumes are strictly forbidden; but the rigor of the fast is con siderably modified by the removal of these re strictions in the intervening nights.
In fasting the tissues show considerably greater waste during the first few days than on those succeeding. Human beings can maintain life for eight days without food and drink, and longer if they are kept warm and resting. The supply of water wonderfully prolongs life. The 15 survivors of the wreck of the Medusa frigate in 1876 subsisted for 13 days on a raft without food. About the same time some miners were interned for 10 days without food and all recovered. Dogs can subsist from 30 to 35 days if deprived entirely of food and drink. Amon famous fasters may be men tioned Sarah Jacobs, the Welsh girl, on whose behalf it was claimed that she had lived for two years without tasting food, but who suc cumbed after nine days when put under the watch of professional nurses; Jacques, who fasted for 30 days at Edinburgh in 1888, 42 days in London in 1890, and 50 days in 1891; and Succi, an Italian, who fasted for 40 days in London in 1890.
Benedict, F. G., Study of Prolonged Fasting> (Washington 1915) ; Brewster, (Saints and Festivals of the Chns tiap (New York 1904) ; Love, and Thanksgiving Days of New England) (1895) ; MacCulloch and Maclean, in the articles on 'Fasting) in Hastings' (Dictionary of Religion and Ethics) (New York 1912) •, and Wester inarck, E., The Principles of in (London 1907).