Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 211, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 September 1915 — Says Starvation is a Pleasant Death [ARTICLE]

Says Starvation is a Pleasant Death

College Profeeeor Glarta New Discussion.—“ You Don’t Care and You Don't Feel." How does it feel to starve? Dr. A. J. Carlson, of the physiological department of the University of Chicago, is supposed to be an expert on starvation. He has done some interesting research work and recently went without food for five days without minding it at all. He has pronounced death by starvation a pleasant one. Dr. Carlson's statements have caused much discussion in medical circles. Many well Informed men agree with him to the extent that they believe death by starvation is accompanied by little pain after the first pangs of hunger. An expert on starvation is W. D. Boyce, the publisher and explorer. He has seen famine in India and Africa and watched men die from starvation in China and South America. He met a sailing ship that came in after the crew had gone twenty-seven days without food. “ ’Half of them were dead,* said he. ’The ones that were alive were all asleep and their legs were swelled up so we had to cut their clothes off with knives. They hadn’t had food nor water. The food was bad, but going without water was worse. The rule is you can go three minutes without air, three days without water, and three weeks without food. “ ‘Two days was the most I ever tried at starving. The pangs ome first —that’s just hunger. When you starve your mental faculties and the physical go at the same time, so you don’t care and you don’t feel. There isn’t much pain.- I’ve seen whole villages in India and China and Africa where the folks weren’t getting enough food —not exactly starving but just dying because they didn’t get enough food. It was more like sleeping sickness than anything else.’” A reporter, accosted on the street by a man who said he was starving, took the wayfarer to a lunch room and provided him with a good meal. The reporter described the experience as follows: “The dreamy look disappeared from the man’s eyes. Now he looked wolfish. The Interview was held up ten minutes. By that time the cakes and coffee had vanished. “How it feels to starve, huh?” he said, jamming a toothpick in his mouth and leaning back. “Well, it feels like rats knawlng at your stomach —at first. Then you just kinda cave in and want to sleep. You get to feeling dopey like and you don’t care about nothin’. But you gotta hunch if you pass you’re gonna pass for keeps. It’s a good deal like freezln’—first it hurts and then it eases off and you feel sleepy. That’s the way I felt when I bumped into you. Thanks for the eats.”