In the Greek Church fasting is kept with much greater severity. The Easter fast lasts 4S days, that of Christmas 39 days, that in honor of the Virgin 14 days, and that of the Apostles begins on Monday after Trinity and extends to the 29th of June. There arc also many vigils preparatory for great festivals. The Church of England con siders fasting as praiseworthy, but not as obliga tory, a useful exercise preparatory for the means of grace, but not itself one. The days named by the English Church as seasons of fasting are the forty days of Lent, including Ash Wednesday and Good Friday; the ember-days, the three rogation days, all the Fridays of the year (except Christ mas Day), and the eves or vigils of certain festi vals.
Mohammed commanded but one fast, viz. that during the month of Ramadan (see RAMADAN), although he recommended fasting at certain other times as a meritorious act. The fast of Ramadan is rigorously observed, at least in letter, by all Mussulmans. Whether fasting was practiced in Arabia before contact with Judaism or Christianity is doubtful. Certain of the fasts recommended by Mohammed seem to be imita tions; that on the 10th of 14Iuharram (see Mu. 11 A ItIlA ) , for instance, corresponds to the Day of Atonement on the 10th of Tishri.
Abstinence from fond may cause a grave condi tion of the body, and may even endanger life. In an experiment upon an animal which was caused to fast for 13 days, the more important tissues lost the following percentages of dry solid mat ter: The adipose tissues, 97 per cent.; the spleen, 63.1 per cent.; the liver, 56.6 per cent.; the mus cles, 30.2 per cent.; the blood, 17.6 per cent.; the brain and spinal cord. none. tissues in general became more watery than in health.
As the amount of muscle lost during the fasting period contained about 15.2 grains of nitrogen, more than half the lost nitrogen calm- from metabolism of muscular tissue. Experience has taught that the weight of an adult's body may remain approximately constant for months or years, eves under varying conditions of diet. Also, the relative proportions of the various tis sues of the body remain constant, in addition to an unchanged weight. Evidently, in such cases, the expenditure of the body must precisely bal ance its income. If it did not lose as much nitrogen as it takes in, the body would gain in muscle. if it did not lose as much carbon as it takes in, it would put on fat. It may be losing or gaining carbon. losing or gaining fat, and yet the proteid constituents remain constant in amount, the expenditure of nitrogen being exact ly equal to the income of nitrogen. This condi tion is called 'nitrogenous equilibrium.' In a fasting animal, while urea is excreted and car bonic acid is given off, the expenditure of nitrogen is very small. The glycogen and then the fat disappear, and, lastly, some of the proteid. But, as the figures given show, the heart and central nervous system are supported, and lose but little in weight, while other organs are sacrificed to feed them.
The results obtained from the study of fasting men differ a little from those in the case of starving animals. In men. the excretion of ni trogen diminishes continuously for several days.
There is n diminution of the chlorine and urea in the urine, and an increase in phenol. The respiratory quotient sinks to a figure less than the one corresponding to oxidation of fats alone. The inference must be that some of the carbon of the disintegrated proteids is stored up in the body as glycogen.
After a certain period of fasting. fever, rest lessness. and delirium generally set in. The delir ium may be mild, with hallucinations of food and drink, or it may be furious. Age and obesity have a considerable influence upon the length of time life persists, in the face of actual starva tion. A case is recorded, of the wreck of the frigate Medusa in ISM when fifteen people sur vived without food on an open raft, for thirteen clays. In the case of a convict, quoted by Berard, life was sustained on water alone for sixty-three days. Eight miners survived five days and sixteen hours with almost no food. But, generally, death occurs in man after from five to eight days of total deprivation of food. Chossat states that death from starvation occurs after a loss of fou• tenths of the weight of the body. Though there have been many alleged cases of fasting for thirty days, or even some years, by certain professional fasters or religions women, nothing of the sort could possibly have happened. impostures having thus been practiced invariably in every ease. Dogs live from thirty to thirty-five days if de prived entirely of food and drink.
Hibernating animals (see HIBERNATION) are capable of sustaining the want of food for an apparently indefinite period of weeks during the winter sleep; but no warm-blooded animar can endure fasting in anything like the same degree as the reptiles—in many of which, indeed, the natural state of existence is one of long intervals between the times of taking food• and in which the vital change of texture is remarkably slow. Thus, the remarkable amphibious animal, the Protons anguinus, has been known to live for years without food, and the smile is true of sala manders, tortoises, and oven goldfishes. In at tempting the recovery of persons reduced by fast ing, food must be given in very small quantities :It. a time, and of the most nourishing and digesti• ble quality; stimulants should be either withheld or very cautiously adirinistered. The most im portant point, next to the regulation of the food, and sometimes even before food is given at all, is the removal of the chill of the body by gradu ally applied heat; for, in addition to emaciation and arrest of secretion, the animal heat falls per ceptibly during fasting.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. Consult the Hebrew areIncoloBibliography. Consult the Hebrew areIncolo- gies of Nowack (Freiburg, 1894) and Benzinger (ib., 1894) ; Linsenmayr, Die Entivicklung der kirehlichen Fastendiziplin bis turn Konzil rout Nieau, (Munich, 1877) ; Robertson Smith, Relig ion of the (Cambridge, 1894) ; Smend, Alttestamentliche Religiousgesehichte (Freiburg, 1899) ; Dnehesne, Origines du tattle ehraien (Paris, 1898). For the physiological effects, con sult: Flint, Text-Book of Human Physiology (New York, 1879) ; Stewart, Manual of Physiol ogy (London, 1895).