ut two hundred
and seventy feet in length, sixty in breadth, and the snow was over
forty-two feet in depth. Notwithstanding all the efforts made by the
survivors it was impossible to extricate the buried persons till the
18th of April following. All were dead except three women, who, having
found some hay, fed a goat with it, and thus obtained from this animal a
pint of milk daily, on which they had managed to sustain life for a
month.[16]

In Belgium in the year 1683, four colliers were confined in a coal pit
for twenty-four days without anything to eat. On the twenty-fifth day
they were taken out. In all that time they had lived on nothing but a
little water, which flowed from the walls of the prison in which they
were immured.[17]

A case is mentioned by Fodere[18] on the authority of M. Chaussier, in
which some workmen were taken out alive after having been confined for
fourteen days in a cold damp vault. When released at the end of the time
mentioned, their pulses were slow and weak, their animal heat greatly
reduced, and respiration barely perceptible. Fodere ascribes their long
existence without either food or drink, to the fact that the atmosphere
of the vault was exceedingly humid, and that the moisture was absorbed
into their bodies, taking the place of water ingested into the stomach.

In another case reported by Dr. Straus,[19] a man sixty-five years of
age, was extracted alive from a coal mine, in which he had been
imprisoned for twenty-three days. During the first ten days he had a
little dirty water, but for the last thirteen days nothing whatever.
When taken out he was in a condition of great weakness and emaciation
and died after three days, notwithstanding all efforts made to preserve
his life.

Cases of prolonged abstinence often occur among the insane, who, under
the influence of delusions, or in order to destroy their lives refuse
all food. Dr. Willan relates the case of a young man, who, through
delusions, refused all food but a little orange juice, and who lived for
sixty days on this alone.

Of course such persons, if under the observation of a physician, could
be fed forcibly, but through the ignorance of friends or relatives it
not unfrequently happens that medical aid is not invoked in time, and
serious symptoms, or even death itself, may result. The time at which
this last termination ensues varies according to the kind of insanity
with which the patient is affected. A general paralytic