mine disasters, and the like, digestive function is paralyzed primarily by mental apprehension due to the situation. If death occur in these circumstances, within several days or weeks, it must be attributed, not to want of nourishment, but to the effect of general emotional exhaustion upon physical force.
For the purposes of the text, Starvation may be defined as the denial of food by accident or design to a system, non-diseased, but clamoring for sustenance. Hunger indicates the need, and, whenever its call is sounded, fatal consequences ensue in case of neglect or omission to feed.
Thus emphasizing the distinction between the state of the human body in a fast, and its condition in the process of starvation, detailed examination of these subjects is left for other chapters.
