(From abstineo, to abstain). In a limited sense, this regulation implies moderation and temperance; and numerous are the instances in which the happiest effects have resulted from them. The abstinence enjoined by the tenets of different sects have been probably, in part, political institutions for the preservation of health. In monasteries, where active exercise is precluded, it is necessary, and in other situations often prudent. During sleep, we remain many hours without food; and animals that remain torpid for several months require no nourishment. Sedentary persons should therefore be particularly cautious in the quantity and nature of the aliment they take in. Their food should be of a limited quantity, and of a lax nature; but not too much confined to the vegetable kingdom, as they are subject to flatulencies. Man, how-ever, was made for variety; and the principle which D 2 corrects the deviations from health, styled the vis me-dicatrix naturae, loses its power from want of exertion; as the arm, constantly supported in a sling, would become paralytic. Even abstinence should not therefore be constantly practised; and though it should not alternate with excess, greater freedom may be occasionally allowed. The stomach, however, at times, requires rest, and it should be often many hours empty. Weak stomachs by this means recover strength, and are enabled to assimilate or discharge their crudities. Thus those who feel the immediate bad effects of excess seldom ultimately suffer: he who boasts of "never being sick or sorry" after it, finds at an early period that his constitution required some intervals of repose. The practice recommended of eating little and often is highly injurious,except in particular diseases; for food must be retained in the stomach to be digested, and, unless it is in some measure filled, the contents soon pass off. Many instances of long-continued abstinence are recorded, but generally in persons whose state resembled that of torpid animals: there is one instance of a man who employed abstinence to cure a painful disease, and he succeeded; but he felt little desire of food, and, as he had passed through the most difficult part of the attempt, obstinately refused all nourishment.