Succi's fast, an experiment by no means novel, but of a very dangerous character, has excited an amount of interest out of all proportion to any scientific value it may possess. Ten years ago a similar feat was performed in America, and Dr. Tanner must have been fully gratified with the notoriety he achieved. He is said, however, to have died some twelve months after his prolonged fast, and doubtless from its effects, for had he not been originally a strong and healthy man he would not have been able to persevere with the experiment. His success was not sufficient to render his experiment a favorite one; the inducement in some form or other must be enormous to cause a sane man to endure such great and prolonged suffering. The human body in some respects resembles a steam-engine; it performs work and requires fuel in the shape of food, NEW SERIES.-VOL. LII., No. 1. 1 which, when converted into tissue, furnishes the motor power, the quantity of food required varying with the work done. We may assume that a ploughman requires more food than a tailor, just as a locomotive burns more fuel than a sinal engine. When very little work of any kind is done a very little food goes a long way; if food be withheld altogether the machine does not stop, for the body itself can be used to supply the fuel, without the necessity for immediate restoration by means of food. The body, therefore, differs from an engine in one very essential point; the latter cannot consume as fuel the materials of which it is composed, but all its power is derived from the coal or coke in the furnace, and is in direct proportion to the amount consumed. When the supply of fuel is exhausted the machine stops. The animal organism, on the contrary, consumes its own body; it burns its tis sues, and not its food; but the latter is required to make good the loss. Long after the food has been transformed into the solids and liquids of the living body the animal organism can go on working and manifesting all its ordinary powers. There is, however, a limit to this consumption of the tissues; the man who takes no food resembles a spendthrift who lives upon his capital-when the latter is exhausted the end comes. Meanwhile, in the case of the fasting man, the gradual destruction of his tissues is attended by very marked changes. The symptoms of fasting have been very carefully studied by means of experiments upon animals, and the information thus obtained has enabled us better to comprehend the phenomena displayed by human beings when deprived of food. The following were the principal symptoms noticed by M. Chossat, a French investigator. The animals remain calm during the first half or two-thirds of the period, they then become more or less agitated, and this state continues so long as their temperature remains fairly high. Some hours before death the temperature rapidly falls, and the animal becomes still and remains in any position in which it is placed. As the coldness becomes more marked the weakness increases, the breathing becomes slower, and insensibility gradually passes into death. One important fact must not be overlooked, inasmuch as it illustrates the risks to which Succi and others expose themselves. Chossat found that sudden death was not uncommon in starving animals long before the ordinary time, and that the slightest shock was sufficient to destroy life at once. A pigeon kept fasting for a long time falls down and dies when its claws are clipped; whereas it would have lived for several days if not interfered with. This sudden death occurs from what is termed " syncope"-the heart's action is at once arrested when a sensitive nerve is painfully excited. A very slight smart of pain is quite sufficient to cause immediate death in animals thus reduced to a condition of great debility. There is no reason why the same accident should not occur in the human subject, and if Succi were thus suddenly to expire it would be a matter of remorse for those who encouraged him in his attempt. The loss of weight in fasting animals was carefully determined by Chossat, and he found that it amounted on the average to 40 per cent., but there was a considerable difference between the extremes, and this seemed to depend upon the amount of fat previously accumulated in the body, those animals in which the fat had been most abundant losing the most weight but living the longest. The above-mentioned proportion may, however, be exceeded, and the animal may yet survive. Some years ago a fat pig was buried in its sty for 160 days under 30 ft. of the chalk of a cliff at Dover; it was dug out alive at the end of that time, reduced in weight from 160 lb. to 40 lb., or no less than 75 per cent. The most remarkable facts connected with the loss of weight are that the fat is almost completely used up, no less than 93 per cent. being removed; the heart loses 44, the muscles in general 42, the bones 17, while the nervous system loses barely 2 per cent. It is evident, therefore, that death occurs when the stock of combustible material is consumed, and that every other tissue gives up its components so as to save the nervous system as much as possible. The immediate cause of death from fasting is, in reality, the reduction of the bodily temperature, which must ensue when all the available combustible material is used up. At first the fall is very gradual, but afterward the decline is more rapid until the reduction amounts to nearly 30 degrees below the normal point, and death then takes place. Chossat noticed that if while in the state of torpor preceding death the animal was artificially warmed and its temperature raised, some amount of consciousness and muscular power was gradually restored, and if food were then cautiously administered some of the animals experimented upon escaped from impending death. Young animals kept without food died sooner than older ones, and, contrary to what we should expect, no very decided difference was made in the duration of life either by withdrawing or permitting the supply of water. The possible duration of life, when all food, save water, is abstained from, is the question which experiments like those of Dr. Tanner and Succi have at least partially solved. Admitting the reality of the former's fast, it would follow that life can be sustained for forty days on water He was alone. There are, however, other cases tion, and she died eight days afterward which show that this period may be consid- from acute starvation. During the greater erably exceeded. In 1831, a murderer at part of this time she was cheerful, and Toulouse, in order to escape public execu- exhibited nothing extraordinary. Later tion, committed suicide by abstaining from on it was found that she could not be food for sixty-three days. At first, efforts kept warm, and she gradually sank into a were made to feed him by force, but his torpid state which continued till death. violence was so great that these were It was a terrible experiment, and one abandoned, and only ineffectual persuasion which was utterly unjustifiable. The girl, was resorted to. During the sixty-three who was only twelve and a half years old, days he consumed between eight and ten should have been taken from her friends pints of water, on some days taking only and treated in a hospital. There was no a few drops. In the case of the Corsican emaciation visible after death, and indeed, prisoner, Viterbi, who committed suicide. more than the average amount of fat was by starvation, life was prolonged for present. was prolonged for present. The rapidity with which death twenty-five days only. It is stated that ensued was due to the want of water. he took a little water from time to time. Nearly ten years have elapsed since Dr. Some years ago the notorious poisoner, Tanner's prolonged fast, which was begun William Palmer, when under sentence of in New York, June 28th, 1880. death in Stafford Jail, refused food for an eccentric man of respectable character, some days, in the hope of cheating the and strong self-will, who endeavored to hangman. On being told, however, that make amends for an assumedly unsuccesshe would be forcibly fed if he persisted ful medical career by promulgating various in this course he at once abandoned it. startling theories on the subjects of electricity and fasting. During the first nine days, he swallowed only a quarter of a pint of water, which, however, he used freely to rinse his mouth and bathe his feet. He found, however, that further abstinence from fluid was impossible; on the eleventh day he began to take water freely, swallowing about five quarts during the next four days, and gaining in bodily weight about 4 lb. It was only natural that this change should excite considerable doubt as to the reality of his fast. He used to go out daily, taking rides and drives, but spent most of his time curled up in his bed. He was reported to be in very poor condition three days before the expiration of the term; but he accomplished his task, and, according to his own account, without pain or severe distress. He was never delirious. His experiment was unfavorably regarded by the orthodox physicians of New York, and they declined to witness it. He therefore placed himself under the care of the socalled "eclectics," ," who undertook the task of watching him. One remarkable feature connected with his fast was that he did not attempt to husband his resources by reducing the action of his lungs and heart to a minimum. Cases of voluntary abstinence for long periods are not unfrequently met with in medical practice. In one, recorded a few years ago, a lady, aged sixty, much distressed by some family trouble, suddenly refused food. She adhered to her determination, and died on the forty-ninth or fiftieth day, having taken nothing but cold water, with the exception of two teaspoonfuls of brandy on one occasion. There were no grounds for suspecting any deception. In another case, also that of a lady, aged eighty, life was prolonged for thirty-three days under conditions of total abstinence from food, a few spoonfuls of water daily excepted. The authenticity of the fast was perfectly as sured; she kept quiet in bed, talked but little, and took little notice of those about her. At the end of the first week delirium came on, but ceased after a few days. There was no craving for food, and, inasmuch as there was no physical exertion, the wear and tear of the tissues was reduced to a minimum. The case of the Welsh fasting girl, Sarah Jacobs, which excited a painful interest twenty years ago, was of a very different character. The girl was an impostor, and, aided by her parents and others, had pretended to abstain from food for many weeks, but had not lost flesh. In order to clear up the mystery, she was placed under systematic inspec There is no doubt that some of the conditions under which Dr. Tanner was placed were decidedly unfavorable, and there are various circumstances which must exert a |