Omaha daily bee., 1916-06-16
BY WOODS HUTCHINSON, M. D

If further proof than the experience
of buried miners and professional
fasters were required Of the wonderful
reserve power Of the human organ
ism in desperate emergencies, it can
be found in abundance in hospital rec
ords.
Patients who, by some blocking of
the gullet, or intestines or extensive
destruction of the stomach by acci-
dent or by cancey are absolutely pre-
vented from assi1nilating food, or who,
from uncomfortable vomiting, reject
everything which they swallow within
few minutes, show almost equal
powers of endurance of starvation to
the faster and the miners and earth
quake victims, in proportion to their
physical condition.
II the condition which renders the
absorption of food impossible does
not cause severe pain, or self-poison-
ing or auto-infection, we have little
fear for the lives or even the health
of our patients thus cut off from
their food supply for a week or ten
days, and usually no serious misgiv-
ings up to two or three weeks, if they
are able to absorb water and tree
from pain so that they can rest COM
fortably. -.
In fact, hundreds of cases are on
record who have survived without
food, or with only the most trifling
amounts per day, for two three or
even five weeks, and then if the OBJ
structive condition in the meantime
could be relieved by operation, or 9TH
erwise overcome, made complete
and gratifying recovery. We, used to
rely greatly upon nutrient enemata,
injections of beef tea, egg-nog, ETC.,
into the bowel, in these cases.
But we now know that very little
food substance of any kind is alb
sorbed from the colon, and that the
main value of these high enemata
was to supply water to the system,
which can be freely absorbed here. In
fact, patients do almost as well upon
injections of plain boiled water or
weak saline solutions as they did on
these nourishing broths and thick
soups, even if predigested, and are
much more comfortable.
The reason and mechanism Of this
remarkable power of going without
food are twofold. First of all, the
grim fact that such an absolute power
of endurancs-of starvation was an abb
solute essential to survival, not
merely in the stone age and in the
stage of savagery, but all through
barbarism to the lower stages OF So
called civilization.
Famines, with the savage, come
every winter or every dry season, ac-
cording to his latitude; and the
Ojibwa, or Eskimo, who cannot, on
occasion, eat thirty pounds OF meat
at sitting when he can get it and
go thirty days without it altogether
when he can't has slim chances OF
survival.
And we kept that power pretty we'll
exercised in our own ancestral line up
! to a couple of centuries ago; for a
famine every ten or fifteen years was
formerly as regular and matter Of
course an affair as wet summer or
an extra cold winter all over Europe,
as it is in Russia, Turkey and India
to this day.
The mechanism OF our capacity to
still stand these tremendous strains
on emergency, is that even to this
day nature equips every one Of US
with a packing and lubricating and
blanketing of fat amounting to nearly
Is per cent of our body weight.
If we would literally fry the fat out
of ourselves, we would shrink at least
third in bulk; for not only is there
jacketing and packing and filing in of
all sorts of unoecupied spaces and
rounding out of unbeautiful hollows
by this natural oleomargarir1e. but
every one of cur tissues is saturated
and soaked with tour livers, our
muscles, the hollows of our bones,
and even our lordly and superior ner-
vous system. Our brain as 1t stands
is nearly 40 per cent fat; so that the
term "fat-headed" may be as accur-
ate as it is abusive. " ,..
Although fat is very useful tissue
in many Of the every day activities Of
the body, a very large share of this
huge proportion OF it, the, heaviest
tissue but two in our bodies, second
only to the muscles and bones, is
really floating capital, money in the
bank, which can be utilized in case
of run or drain on our credit.
So convertible, in fact, a security is
it, that no less than nine. tenths Of it
can be completely burned up i'll pro-
Llonged starvation, fully half OF the
tenth that remains being incorporated
in the nervous system. =.
This supplies the butter for our in
ternal daily bread in case of starva-
ton; but where does the bread and
meat come from? From our muscles
and from our liver and from the
voluminous and juicy coils of our food
tube; even our bones are sucked dry
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