I trust I have now sufficiently prepared the mind of the reader for an
examination of the phenomena of the voluntary suspension of life that I
shall now treat of.
The body of an animal may be compared to a machine that converts the
food that it receives into motion. It receives nothing, it will produce
nothing; but there is no reason why it should get out of order if it is
not deteriorated by external agents. The legendary rustic who wanted to
accustom his ass to go without food was therefore theoretically wrong
only because he at the same time wanted the animal to work. The whole
difficulty consists in breaking with old habits. To return to the
comparison that we just made, we shall run the risk of exploding the
boiler of a steam engine if we heat it or cool it abruptly, but we can
run it very slowly and for a very long time with but very little fuel.
We may even preserve a little fire under the ashes, and this, although
it may not be capable of setting the parts running, will suffice later
on to revivify the fireplace after it has been charged anew with fuel.
We have recently had the example of Dr. Tanner, who went forty days
without any other nourishment than water.
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