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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Fasting Girls, by William Alexander Hammond
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Fasting Girls
+       Their Physiology and Pathology
+
+Author: William Alexander Hammond
+
+Release Date: May 26, 2008 [EBook #25601]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FASTING GIRLS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Bryan Ness, Stephen Blundell and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This
+book was produced from scanned images of public domain
+material from the Google Print project.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                            BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
+
+
+    CEREBRAL HYPERÆMIA: THE RESULT OF MENTAL STRAIN
+      OR EMOTIONAL DISTURBANCES. 16mo, cloth ... $1 00
+
+    "Under the disguise of these hard words, Dr. Hammond presents a
+    variety of admirable counsels, with regard to an excess of blood in
+    the head, pointing out its causes, its symptoms, the mode of its
+    medical treatment, and the means of its prevention."--_N. Y. Tribune._
+
+    "The work is not only of interest to the medical man, but also is
+    one easily understood and to be read with profit by brain-workers of
+    all classes, whether in profession, in literature or business. It
+    treats of the cause of headaches, the wakefulness, the illusions or
+    delusions, and feelings of tightness in the head, which so many of
+    our American writers and thinkers experience, and it gives valuable
+    information available by laymen as to the prevention and remedy for
+    this affection, which later on leads to insanity or death."--_Boston
+    Traveller._
+
+                              G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK.
+
+
+
+
+                       FASTING GIRLS;
+
+               THEIR PHYSIOLOGY AND PATHOLOGY
+
+
+                             BY
+
+                  WILLIAM A. HAMMOND, M.D.
+
+ PROFESSOR OF DISEASES OF THE MIND AND NERVOUS SYSTEM IN THE
+     MEDICAL DEPARTMENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF THE CITY OF
+      NEW YORK, AND IN THE UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT. ETC.
+
+
+           "There is no new thing under the Sun."
+                                         --_Eccl._ I, 9.
+
+        "Nil spernat auris, nec tamen credat statim."
+                                               --PHÆDRUS.
+
+
+                          NEW YORK
+                     G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
+                      182 FIFTH AVENUE
+                            1879
+
+
+
+
+     COPYRIGHT BY
+ G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS.
+        1879.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+In issuing this little book I have been actuated by a desire to do
+something towards the removal of a lamentable degree of popular
+ignorance.
+
+It seems that no proposition that can be made is so absurd or impossible
+but that many people, ordinarily regarded as intelligent, will be found
+to accept it and to aid in its propagation. And hence, when it is
+asserted that a young lady has lived for fourteen years without food of
+any kind, hundreds and thousands of persons throughout the length and
+breadth of a civilized land at once yield their belief to the monstrous
+declaration.
+
+I have confined my remarks entirely to the question of abstinence from
+food. The other supernatural gifts, the possession of which is claimed,
+would, if considered, have extended the limits of this little volume
+beyond the bounds which were deemed expedient. At some future time I may
+be tempted to discuss them. In the meantime it is well to call to mind
+that a proposition (_see_ Appendix) which I made solely in the interest
+of truth was disregarded, ostensibly with the desire to avoid publicity,
+when in fact the daily press had for weeks been filled with reports in
+detail, furnished by the friends of the young lady in question, of the
+marvellous powers she was said to possess.
+
+A portion of this essay, which bore upon the matter discussed, has been
+taken from another volume by the author, published several years ago,
+and now out of print.
+
+                                                   WILLIAM A. HAMMOND.
+
+ 43 WEST 54TH STREET,
+  MARCH _1st, 1879_.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+                                                   PAGE
+
+   I  ABSTINENCE IN THE MIDDLE AGES                   1
+
+  II  ABSTINENCE IN MODERN TIMES                      6
+
+ III  ABSTINENCE FROM FOOD, WITH STIGMATIZATION      31
+
+  IV  THE BROOKLYN CASE                              48
+
+   V  THE PHYSIOLOGY AND PATHOLOGY OF INANITION      59
+
+
+
+
+FASTING GIRLS.
+
+
+
+
+I.
+
+ABSTINENCE IN THE MIDDLE AGES.
+
+
+Among the many remarkable manifestations by which hysteria exhibits
+itself, for the astonishment of the credulous and uneducated portion of
+the public, and--alas, that it should have to be said,--for the
+delectation of an occasional weak-minded and ignorant physician, the
+assumption of the ability to live without food may be assigned a
+prominent place. I am not aware that this power has been claimed in its
+fullest development for the male of the human species. When he is
+deprived of food he dies in a few days, more or less, according to his
+physical condition as regards adipose tissue and strength of
+constitution; but if a weak emaciated girl asserts that she is able to
+exist for years without eating, there are at once certificates and
+letters from clergymen, professors, and even physicians, in support of
+the truth of her story. The element of impossibility goes for nothing
+against the bare word of such a woman, and her statements are accepted
+with a degree of confidence which is lamentable to witness in this era
+of the world's progress.
+
+The class of deceptions occasionally induced by hysteria, and embracing
+these "fasting girls," has been known for many years, though it is only
+in comparatively recent times that the instances have been taken at
+their proper value. Görres[1] gives a number of examples occurring among
+male and female saints and other holy persons, in which partial or total
+abstinence from food was said to have existed for long periods.
+
+Thus Liduine of Schiedam fell ill in 1395, and remained in that state
+till her death, thirty-three years subsequently. During the first
+nineteen years she ate every day nothing but a little piece of apple the
+size of a holy wafer, and drank a little water and a swallow of beer, or
+sometimes a little sweet milk. Subsequently, being unable to digest beer
+and milk, she restricted herself to a little wine and water, and still
+later she was obliged to confine herself to water alone, which served
+her both as food and drink. But after nineteen years she took nothing
+whatever, according to her own statement made to some friars in 1422,
+she averring that for eight years nothing in the way of nourishment had
+passed her lips, and that for twenty years she had seen neither the sun
+nor the moon, nor had touched the earth with her feet.
+
+Saint Joseph of Copertino remained for five years without eating bread,
+and ten years without drinking wine, contenting himself with dried
+fruits, which he mixed with various bitter herbs. The herb which he used
+for Fridays had such an atrocious taste, that one of the brethren, by
+simply putting his tongue to it, was seized with vomiting, and for
+several days thereafter everything he ate excited nausea. He fasted for
+forty days seven times every year, and during these periods ate nothing
+at all except on Sundays and Thursdays.
+
+Nicolas of Flue, as soon as he embraced the monastic life, subsisted
+altogether on the holy eucharist. The pious Görres in explanation of
+this miracle says:
+
+"In ordinary nourishment he who eats being superior to that which is
+eaten, assimilates the aliments which he takes, and communicates to them
+his own nature. But in the eucharist the aliment is more powerful than
+he who eats. It is no longer therefore the nourishment which is
+assimilated, but on the contrary, it assimilates the man, and introduces
+him into a superior sphere. An entire change is produced. The
+supernatural life in some way or other absorbs the natural life, and the
+man instead of living on earth, lives henceforth by grace and by
+heaven."
+
+This is about on a par, as regards lucidity and logic, with the
+explanations which we are given of the alleged case of prolonged fasting
+in Brooklyn.
+
+Doubts arose in regard to Nicolas, and the bishop had him watched, but
+without detecting him in fraud. Finally he ordered him to eat a piece of
+bread in his presence. Nicolas did as he was commanded, but at the first
+mouthful he was seized with violent vomiting. The bishop inquired of him
+how he thus managed to live without eating, to which the brother
+answered that when he assisted at mass, and when he took the holy
+eucharist, he felt a degree of strength and suppleness like that derived
+from the most nutritious food.
+
+Still the doubters continued, and the inhabitants of Underwold, where
+Nicolas lived, appear to have been at first very much inclined to
+suspect him of deceit. But they were finally converted, for having
+during a whole month guarded every approach to his cabin, and having
+during that time detected no one in taking food to him, they were
+convinced that for that time at least he had lived without food. The
+sceptical reasoner of the present day would probably regard the test as
+insufficient.
+
+In 1225, Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln, having heard that there was at
+Leicester a nun who had taken no nourishment for seven years, and who
+lived only on the eucharist, which she took every Sunday, gave at first
+no faith to the story. He sent to her, however, fifteen clerks, with
+directions to watch her assiduously for fifteen days, never for an
+instant losing sight of her. The clerks reported to him that they had
+strictly obeyed his commands; that she had taken no nourishment, and
+that yet she nevertheless preserved her full strength and health.
+Whereupon the Bishop declared himself convinced, "as," adds Görres, "it
+was proper for a sensible man to do."
+
+Among others of the holy persons who acquired the power of living on the
+sacramental bread, may be mentioned St. Catharine of Sienna, Saint Rose
+of Lima, Saint Collete, Saint Peter of Alcantara, and many others.
+
+But if saints and other holy people were able, through miraculous power,
+to live without food, the same ability was claimed for those who were
+under the influence of demons and devils. Görres[2] states that a person
+possessed by a devil often loses all taste for food of any kind, and can
+retain no nourishment in his body. Another symptom is a disgust which
+is formed for the companionship of other persons. Thus a man was
+tormented by a demon, who forced him to fly into the forests, where he
+hid himself from mankind. One night he quit his house, and concealed
+himself in a cavern, remaining there entirely without food for sixteen
+days. Again he remained in the woods twenty-four days, neither eating
+nor drinking during this period. Finally his children found him, and
+taking him to a priest, had the devil exorcised, and he was cured.
+
+Saint Prosper, of Aquitaine, speaks of a young girl possessed by a
+devil, and who went seventy days without eating. Notwithstanding this
+long fast, she did not become emaciated, because every night at twelve
+o'clock a bird sent by the devil took a mysterious nourishment to her.
+
+An astonishing feature in the cases of the diabolical abstaining from
+food, is that, as in the holy instances, they exhibit various
+manifestations of hysteria. Görres, with a charming degree of
+simplicity, details these symptoms and failing, under the influence of
+the predominant idea which fills him, to recognize their real character,
+ascribes them without hesitation to devilish agency. Thus he says:
+
+"The functions of the organs of nutrition are sometimes profoundly
+altered in the possessed, and these alterations are manifested by
+violent cramps, which show the extent to which the muscular system is
+affected. The hysterical lump in the throat is a frequent phenomenon in
+possession. A young girl in the Valley of Calepino had all her limbs
+twisted and contracted, and had in the œsophagus a sensation as if a
+ball was sometimes rising in her throat, and again falling to her
+stomach. Her countenance was of an ashen hue, and she had a constant
+sense of weight and pain in the head. All the remedies of physicians had
+failed, and as evidences of possession were discovered in her, she was
+brought to Brignoli (a priest) who had recourse to supernatural means,
+and cured her."
+
+Strange to say, the ability to live on the eucharist, and to resist
+starvation by diabolical power, died out with the middle ages, and was
+replaced by the "fasting girls," who still continue to amuse us with
+their vagaries. To the consideration of some of the more striking
+instances of more recent times the attention of the reader is invited,
+in the confidence that much of interest in the study of the "History of
+Human Folly" will be adduced.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] La Mystique Divine, Naturelle et Diabolique. Paris, 1861. t. I., p.
+194, _et seq._
+
+[2] Op. cit. t. IV., p. 446.
+
+
+
+
+II.
+
+ABSTINENCE IN MODERN TIMES.
+
+
+Among the more striking cases under this head, is that of Margaret
+Weiss, a young girl ten years of age, who lived at Rode, a small village
+near Spires, and whose history has come down to us through various
+channels, but principally from Gerardus Bucoldianus,[3] who had the
+medical charge of her, and who wrote a little book describing his
+patient. Margaret is said to have abstained from all food and drink for
+three years, in the meantime growing, walking about, laughing, and
+talking like other children of her age. During the first year, however,
+she suffered greatly from pains in her head and abdomen, and, a common
+condition in hysteria--all four of her limbs were contracted. She passed
+neither urine nor fæces. Margaret, though only ten years old--hysteria
+develops the secretive faculties--played her part so well that, after
+being watched by the priest of the parish and Dr. Bucoldianus, she was
+considered free from all juggling, and was sent home to her friends by
+order of the King, "not," the doctor adds, "without great admiration and
+princely gifts." Although fully accepting the fact of Margaret's
+abstinence, Dr. Bucoldianus appears to have been somewhat staggered, for
+he asks very pertinently: "Whence comes the animal heat, since she
+neither eats nor drinks, and why does the body grow when nothing goes
+into it?"
+
+Schenckius[4] quotes from Paulus Lentulus the "Wonderful History of the
+Fasting of Appolonia Schreira, a virgin in Berne." Lentulus states that
+he was with this maid on three occasions, and that, by order of the
+magistrate of Berne, she was taken to that city and a strict guard kept
+upon her. All kinds of means were set in operation to detect imposture
+if any existed, but none was discovered, and she was set at liberty as a
+genuine case of ability to live without food. In the first year of her
+fasting she scarcely slept, and in the second year never closed her eyes
+in sleep; and so she continued for a long while after.
+
+Schenckius also advances the case of Katharine Binder, of the
+Palatinate, who was closely watched by a clergyman, a statesman, and two
+doctors of medicine, without the detection of fraud on her part. She was
+said to have taken nothing but air into her system for nine years and
+more, as Lentulus reported on the authority of Fabricius. This
+last-named physician told Lentulus of another case, that of a girl
+fourteen years old, who certainly had taken neither food nor drink for
+at least three years.
+
+"But," says Dr. Hakewel,[5] "the strangest that I have met with of this
+kind, is the history of Eve Fliegen, out of Dutch translated into
+English, and printed at London, _anno_ 1611, who, being born at Meurs,
+is said to have taken no kind of sustenance for the space of fourteen
+years together; that is, from the year of her age, twenty-two to
+thirty-six, and from the year of our Lord 1597 to 1611; and this we have
+confirmed by the testimony of the magistrates of the town of Meurs, as
+also by the minister who made trial of her in his house thirteen days
+together by all the means he could devise, but could detect no
+imposture." Over the picture of this maid, set in front of the Dutch
+copy, stand these Latin verses:
+
+    "Meursæ hæc quam cernis decies ter, sexque peregit,
+    Annos, bis septem prorsus non viscitur annis
+    Nec potat, sic sola sedet, sic pallida vitam
+    Ducit, et exigui se oblectat floribus horti."
+
+Thus rendered in the English copy:
+
+    "This maid of Meurs thirty and six years spent,
+    Fourteen of which she took no nourishment;
+    Thus pale and wan she sits sad and alone,
+    A garden's all she loves to look upon."
+
+Franciscus Citesius,[6] physician to the King of France and to Cardinal
+Richelieu, devotes a good deal of space and attention to the case of
+Joan Balaam, a native of the city of Constance. She was well grown, but
+of bad manners. About the eleventh year of her age she was attacked with
+a fever, and among other symptoms vomited for twenty days. Then she
+became speechless and so continued for twenty-four days. Then she
+talked, but her speech was raving and incoherent. Finally she lost all
+power of motion and of sensibility in the parts below the head and could
+not swallow. From thenceforth she could not be persuaded to take food.
+Six months afterwards she regained the use of her limbs, but the
+inability to swallow remained and she acquired a great loathing for all
+kinds of meat and drink. The secretions and excretions appeared to be
+arrested. Nevertheless she was very industrious, employing her time in
+running errands, sweeping the house, spinning, and such like. This maid
+continued thus fasting for the space of nearly three years, and then by
+degrees took to eating and drinking again.
+
+Before coming to more recent cases, there is one other to which I desire
+to refer for the reason mainly that in it there was probably organic
+disease in addition to fraud and hysteria. It is cited by Fabricius[7]
+and by Wanley. _Anno Dom._, 1595, a maid of about thirteen years was
+brought out of the dukedom of Juliers to Cologne, and there in a broad
+street at the sign of the White Horse exposed to the sight of as many as
+desired to see her. The parents of this maid affirmed that she had lived
+without any kind of food or drink for the space of three whole years;
+and this they confirmed by the testimony of divers persons, such as are
+worthy of credit. Fabricius observed her with great care. She was of a
+sad and melancholy countenance; her whole body was sufficiently fleshy
+except only her belly, which was compressed so as that it seemed to
+cleave to her back-bone. Her liver and the rest of her bowels were
+perceived to be hard by laying the hand on the belly. As for excrements,
+she voided none; and did so far abhor all kinds of food, that when one,
+who came to see her privately, put a little sugar in her mouth she
+immediately swooned away. But what was most wonderful was, that this
+maid walked up and down, played with other girls, danced, and did all
+other things that were done by girls of her age; neither had she any
+difficulty of breathing, speaking or crying out. Her parents declared
+that she had been in this condition for three years.
+
+A great many more to the same effect might be adduced, but the foregoing
+are sufficient to indicate the fact that belief in the possibility of
+such occurrences was quite general, and that if doubt did exist in
+regard to their real nature, it was not so strong as not readily to be
+overcome by the tricks and devices of hysterical women.
+
+In the following instances of more modern date the reader will perceive
+the view which is taken of them by physicians of the present day, and
+will doubtless discover their real nature.
+
+About sixty-five years ago, a woman of Sudbury, in Staffordshire,
+England, named Ann Moore, declared that she did not eat, and a number of
+persons volunteered to watch her, in order to ascertain whether or not
+she was speaking the truth. The watch was continued for three weeks and
+then the watchers, as in other instances, reported that Ann Moore was a
+real case of abstinence from food of all kinds. The Bible was always
+kept open on Ann's bed. Her emaciation was so extreme that it was said
+her vertebral column could be felt through the abdominal walls. This sad
+condition was asserted to have been caused by her washing the linen of a
+person affected with ulcers. From that time she experienced a dislike
+for food, and even nausea at the sight or mention of it.
+
+As soon as the watchers reported in favor of the genuineness of Ann's
+pretensions her notoriety increased, and visitors came from all parts of
+the country, leaving donations to the extent of two hundred and fifty
+pounds in the course of two years. Doubts, however, again arose, and,
+bold from the immunity she had experienced from the first investigation,
+Ann in an evil moment, for the continuance of her fraud, consented to a
+second watching. This committee was composed of notable persons, among
+them being Sir Oswald Mosley, Bart., Rev. Legh Richmond, Dr. Fox, and
+his son, and many other gentlemen of the country. Two of them were
+always in her room night and day. At the suggestion of Mr. Francis Fox,
+the bedstead, bedding, and the woman in it were placed on a weighing
+machine, and thus it was ascertained that she regularly lost weight
+daily. At the expiration of the ninth day of this strict watching, Dr.
+Fox found her evidently sinking and told her she would soon die unless
+she took food. After a little prevarication, the woman signed a written
+confession that she was an impostor, and had "occasionally taken
+sustenance for the last six years." She also stated that during the
+first watch of three weeks her daughter had contrived, when washing her
+face, to feed her every morning, by using towels made very wet with
+gravy, milk, or strong arrowroot gruel, and had also conveyed food from
+mouth to mouth in kissing her, which it is presumed she did very
+often.[8]
+
+In a clinical lecture delivered at St. George's Hospital,[9] Dr. John W.
+Ogle calls attention to the simulation of fasting as a manifestation of
+hysteria, and relates the following amusing case:
+
+"A girl strongly hysterical, aged twenty, in spite of all persuasion and
+medical treatment, refused every kind of food, or if made to eat, soon
+vomited the contents of the stomach. On November 6th, 1869, whilst the
+girl was apparently suffering in the same manner, the Queen passed the
+hospital on her way to open Blackfriars Bridge. She arose in bed so as
+to look out of the window, although up to this time declaring that every
+movement of her body caused intense pain. On December 29, the following
+letter in the girl's handwriting, addressed to another patient in the
+same ward, was picked up from the floor: 'My Dear Mrs. Evens,--I was
+very sorry you should take the trouble of cutting me such a nice piece
+of bread and butter, yesterday. I would of taken it but all of them saw
+you send it, and then they would have made enough to have talked about.
+But I should be very glad if you would cut me a nice piece of crust and
+put it in a piece of paper and send it, or else bring it, so that they
+do not see it, for they all watch me very much, and I should like to be
+your friend and you to be mine. Mrs. Winslow, (the nurse) is going to
+chapel. I will make it up with you when I can go as far. Do not send it
+if you cannot spare it. Good bye, and God bless you.' Although she
+prevaricated about this letter, she appears to have gradually improved
+from this time on, and one day walked out of the hospital and left it
+altogether. She subsequently wrote a letter to the authorities
+expressing her regret at having gone on as she did."
+
+One of the most remarkable instances of the kind, is that of Sarah
+Jacob, known as the "Welsh Fasting Girl," and whose history and tragical
+death excited a great deal of comment in the medical and lay press in
+Great Britain a few years ago. The following account of the case is
+mainly derived from Dr. Fowler's[10] interesting work.
+
+Sarah Jacob was born May 12th, 1857. Her parents were farmers and were
+uneducated, simple-minded, and ignorant persons. In her earlier years
+she had been healthy, was intelligent, given to religious reading, and
+was said to have written poetry of her own composition. She was a very
+pretty child and was, according to the testimony of the vicar, the Rev.
+Evan Jones, a "good girl."
+
+About February 15th, 1867, when she was not quite ten years of age, she
+complained of pain in the pit of the stomach, and one morning on getting
+up, she told her mother that she had found her mouth full of bloody
+froth. The pain continued, and medical attendance was obtained. Soon
+afterwards she had strong convulsions of an epileptiform character and
+then other spasms of a clearly hysterical form, during which her body
+was bent in the form of a bow as in tetanus, the head and heels only
+touching the bed. Then the muscular spasm ceased and she fell at full
+length on the bed. For a whole month she continued in a state of
+unconsciousness, suffering from frequent repetitions of severe
+convulsive attacks, during which time she took little food. Mr. Davies,
+the surgeon, said in his evidence, that she was for a whole month, in a
+kind of permanent fit, lying on her back, with rigidity of all the
+muscles. For some time her life was despaired of, then her fits ceased
+to be convulsive and consisted of short periods of loss of consciousness
+with sudden awakings. For the next two or three months (till August,
+1867) she took daily, from six, gradually decreasing to four, teacupfuls
+of rice and milk, or oatmeal and milk, which according to her father's
+account, was cast up again immediately and blood and froth with it.
+During this time the bowels were only acted on once in six or nine days.
+"Up to this time," said her father, "she could move both arms and one
+leg, but the other leg was rigid."
+
+By the beginning of October, 1867, her quantity of daily food had, it
+was affirmed, dwindled down to nothing but a little apple about the size
+of a pill, which she took from a tea-spoon. At this time she made water
+about every other day; she looked very bad in the face, but was not
+thin. On the tenth day of October, it was solemnly declared that she
+ceased to take any food whatever, and so continued till the day of her
+death, December 17th, 1869, a period of two years, two months, and one
+week.
+
+"Of the veracity of the assertion in respect of _the one week_," says
+Dr. Fowler, "there is unfortunately plenty of evidence. To the absurdity
+of believing in the barest possibility of twenty-six months absolute
+abstinence, it is sufficient to reply that when to our knowledge, she
+was completely deprived of food, the girl died! The parents most
+persistently impressed upon every private as well as official visitor,
+both before and during the last fatal watching, that the girl did not
+take food; that she could not swallow; that whenever food was mentioned
+to her she became as it were, excited; that when it was offered to her
+she would have a fit, or the offer would make her ill. The sworn
+testimony of the vicar, the Rev. Wm. Thomas, Sister Clinch, Ann Jones,
+and the other nurses, is sufficiently confirmative on this point.
+Furthermore, the parents went so far as to expressly forbid the mere
+mention of food in the girl's presence."
+
+Towards the end of October, 1867, the case had attracted so much
+attention that the inhabitants in the neighborhood first began visiting
+the marvellous little girl.
+
+"In the beginning of November of the same year, the Rev. Evan Jones,
+B.D., the vicar of the parish, was sent for by the parents to visit
+Sarah Jacob. He was at once--by the mother--told of the girl's wonderful
+fasting powers; it was admitted she took water occasionally. He was also
+informed of the extraordinary perversion of her natural functions (the
+suppression of urine and fæcal evacuations.) He found her lying on her
+back in bed, which was covered with books. There was nothing then
+remarkable about her dress. The girl looked weak and delicate, though
+not pale, and answered only in monosyllables. 'The mother said her child
+was very anxious about the state of her soul, that it had such an effect
+upon her mind that she could not sleep.' I asked her myself if she had a
+desire to become a member of the Church of England? She said, 'Yes!' She
+continued to express that wish until July, 1869. At this time the
+reverend gentleman did not believe in the statements relative to the
+girl's abstinence. 'Every time,' he says, 'that I had a conversation
+with her up to the end of 1868, the parents both persisted that she
+lived without food, and continued their statements in January and
+February, 1869. I remonstrated with them and dwelt upon the apparent
+impossibility of the thing. They still persisted that it was a fact.'
+
+"Even as late as September, 1869, the vicar reiterated his ministerial
+remonstrances. When, in the beginning of the spring of 1869, he observed
+the fantastical changes the parents made in the girl's daily attire, he
+told them about the remarks made in the papers about this dressing and
+dwelt upon the impropriety of it. They replied, 'She had no other
+pleasure--they did not like denying it to her.' During the following
+summer, finding that the girl looked more plump in the face and that her
+general improvement was more conspicuous, he said, 'Sarah is evidently
+improving and gaining, and you say she takes no food; you are certainly
+imposing on the public.' I then dwelt on the sinfulness of continuing
+the fraud on the public. I said there were on record several cases of
+alleged fasting, some of which had been put to the test and had been
+discovered to be impositions; that those families would ever be held in
+execration by posterity, and such would be the case with them whenever
+this imposture was found out. The mother then assured me no imposition
+would be discovered in that house, because there was none."
+
+The father and mother both said that the Lord provided for her in a most
+natural way, and that it was a miracle. The father always talked about
+the "Doctor Mawr," meaning God Almighty; that she was supported by that
+"Big Doctor."
+
+Then soon began the custom of leaving money or other presents with the
+child, till at last every one who visited her, was expected to give
+something. Open house was kept and pilgrims came from near and far to
+see the wonderful girl who lived without food.
+
+When money was not forthcoming, presents of clothes, finery, books, or
+flowers, appear to have been substituted. Advantage was taken of these
+presents to bedeck the child in every variety of smartness. At one time
+she had a victorine about her neck and a wreath about her hair, then
+again, ornaments and a jacket on, and her hair neatly dressed with
+ribbons. At another time she had a silk shawl, a victorine around her
+neck, a small crucifix attached to a necklace, and little ribbons above
+the wrists. She had drab gloves on and her bed was nearly covered with
+books.
+
+Notwithstanding the alleged fasting, Sarah Jacob continued to improve in
+health.
+
+And now comes an astounding feature of this most remarkable case. The
+vicar became convinced that the instance was one of real abstinence. A
+little hysterical girl twelve years of age, by her perseverance in
+lying, had actually succeeded in inducing an educated gentleman to
+accept the truth of her statements! The following letter which was
+published on the 19th of February, 1869, speaks for itself:--
+
+                              "A STRANGE CASE.
+
+    "To the Editor of the _Welshman_.
+
+    "Sir: Allow me to invite the attention of your readers to a most
+    extraordinary case. Sarah Jacob, a little girl twelve years of age,
+    and daughter of Mr. Evan Jacob, Lletherneuadd, in this parish, has
+    not partaken of a single grain of any kind of food whatever, during
+    the last sixteen months. She did occasionally swallow a few drops of
+    water during the first few months of this period; but now she does
+    not even do that. She still looks pretty well in the face and
+    continues in the possession of all her mental faculties. She is in
+    this and several other respects, a wonderful little girl.
+
+    "Medical men persist in saying that the thing is quite impossible,
+    but all the nearest neighbors, who are thoroughly acquainted with
+    the circumstances of the case, entertain no doubt whatever of the
+    subject, and I am myself of the same opinion.
+
+    "Would it not be worth their while for medical men to make an
+    investigation into the nature of this strange case? Mr. Evan Jacob
+    would readily admit into his house any respectable person who might
+    be anxious to watch it and to see for himself.
+
+    "I may add, that Lletherneuadd is a farm-house about a mile from New
+    Inn, in this parish.
+
+                          "Yours faithfully,
+
+                                  "THE VICAR OF LLANFIHANGEL-AR-ARTH."
+
+The suggestions of the vicar relative to an investigation, were soon
+after afterwards acted upon by certain gentlemen of the neighborhood. A
+public meeting was called and a committee of watchers was appointed to
+be constantly in attendance in the room with Sarah Jacob, and to observe
+to the best of their ability, whether or not she took any food during
+the investigation. It was agreed that the watching was to continue for a
+fortnight.
+
+Prior to the beginning of this watching, no precautions were taken
+against food being conveyed into the room and concealed there. The
+parents actually debarred the watchers from touching the child's bed.
+The very first element of success was therefore denied, and no wonder
+that the whole affair was subsequently regarded as an absurdity. The
+watching consisted in two different men taking alternate watches from
+eight till eight. The watching to see whether the child partook of food,
+commenced on March 22d, and ended April 5th, 1869--a period of fourteen
+days.
+
+During the above fortnight, one of the watchers, in turn, was always
+close to her bed, and in her sight day and night, and at the time the
+bed was being made, which was generally every other morning, the four
+persons were always present and had every article thoroughly examined.
+The parents were allowed to go near the bed, as also was the little
+sister, six years old, who had been Sarah's constant companion and
+bed-fellow.
+
+On Wednesday, April 7th, 1869, a public meeting was held at the Eagle
+Inn, Llandyfeil, to hear the statements of the parents and of the
+several persons who had watched the child during the fourteen days. The
+parents briefly detailed the condition and symptoms of their daughter
+from the commencement of her illness. At no time during the whole
+fourteen days did the pulse ever reach above ninety per minute, although
+exceedingly changeable, as it always had been. The following evidence
+was received from the watchers, and it is _said_ that their statements
+were duly verified on oath before a magistrate:--
+
+Watcher No. 1 said: I, Evan Edward Smith, watched Sarah Jacob for two
+consecutive nights, (_i. e._, nights 22d and 23d of March) at the
+request of Mr. H. H. Davies, surgeon. The parents gave every facility to
+investigate the matter. I watched her with all possible care, and found
+nothing to suspect that food or drink was given her by foul means. I am
+quite sure she had nothing during my watch. I was dismissed on account
+of being suspected to doze on the second night.
+
+Watcher No. 2. This watcher watched Sarah Jacob for a whole fortnight,
+and found no indications that the child had anything to eat or drink. He
+was a college student, Daniel Harris Davies.
+
+Watcher No. 3. John Jones, a shopkeeper, gave similar evidence. He was a
+decided sceptic before he began watching, but after twelve days was
+thoroughly convinced of the fact that nothing in the shape of
+nourishment was given to the poor child. He watched every movement of
+all the inmates, and found nothing that would lead him to suspect that
+any nourishment was given to the little girl.
+
+Watcher No. 4. James Harris Davies, a medical student, spoke in like
+manner, and was perfectly positive that nothing had been given to her
+during the fortnight he had watched there, with the exception of three
+drops of water, once, to moisten her lips with. He was as great a
+sceptic as any one before he began watching, but as he saw nothing to
+confirm his suspicions, he could conscientiously say that nothing had
+been given her during his watch.
+
+Watcher No. 5. Evan Davies, of Powel Castle, who only watched her for
+one day, gave similar evidence, but as he was a neighbour he was
+dismissed for a stranger.
+
+Watcher No. 6. Herbert Jones, watched only one day, and spoke in a
+similar manner, and was dismissed on account of his credulity.
+
+Watcher No. 7. Thomas Davies, who had been the greatest sceptic of all,
+was strongly convinced. He watched Sarah Jacob twelve days, and was
+quite positive that nothing could have been given her during his watch.
+He watched her with all possible care, and was very cautious to be in a
+prominent place, where Sarah Jacob's mouth was always in sight.
+
+Evidence, however, was given which went to show that the watching was
+very imperfectly performed; that occasionally the watchers left before
+their time had expired; that intoxicating liquors were taken by them to
+the house, and that one of them was drunk while there. It was also shown
+that the father and mother had free access to the bed, while the
+watchers were absolutely prohibited from examining it. It is therefore
+with entire justification that Dr. Fowler states that the watching "was
+the greatest possible farce and mockery."
+
+After the report of the watchers the notoriety of Sarah Jacob of course
+became still greater; crowds came to visit her, and among others the
+Rev. Frederic Rowland Young went to see her, and made an unsuccessful
+effort to cure her by laying on of hands. When Dr. Fowler visited her,
+August 30th, 1869, on getting out at the nearest railway station, he was
+met by little boys bearing placards with the words "Fasting Girl," and
+"This is the shortest way to Llethernoryadd-ucha," on them. In his
+letter to the _Times_, giving an account of his visit, Dr. Fowler
+says:--
+
+"The first impression was most unfavorable, and to a medical man the
+appearances were most suspicious. The child was lying on a bed decorated
+as a bride, having around her head a wreath of flowers, from which was
+suspended a smart ribbon, the ends of which were joined by a small bunch
+of flowers, after the present fashion of ladies' bonnet strings. Before
+her, at proper reading distance, was an open Welsh book, supported by
+two other books on her body. The blanket covering was clean, tidy, and
+perfectly smooth. Across the fire-place, which was nearly opposite the
+foot of her bed, was an arrangement of shelves, well stocked with
+English and Welsh books, the gifts of various visitors to the house. The
+child is thirteen years of age, and is undoubtedly very pretty. Her face
+was plump, and her cheeks and lips of a beautiful rosy color. Her eyes
+were bright and sparkling, the pupils were very dilated, in a measure
+explicable by the fact of the child's head and face being shaded from
+the window-light by the projecting side of the cupboard bedstead. There
+was that restless movement and frequent looking out at the corners of
+the eyes so characteristic of simulative disease. Considering the
+lengthened inactivity of the girl, her muscular development was very
+good, and the amount of fat layer not inconsiderable. My friend stated
+that she looked even better than she did about a twelvemonth ago. There
+was a slight perspiration over the surface of the body. The pulse was
+perfectly natural, as were also the sounds of the lungs and heart, so
+far as I was enabled to make a stethoscopic examination. Having received
+permission to do this, I proceeded to make the necessary derangement of
+dress, when the girl went off into what the mother called a fainting
+fit. This consisted of nothing but a little and momentary hysterical
+crying and sobbing. The color never left the lips or cheeks. The pulse
+remained of the same power. Consciousness could have been but slightly
+diminished, inasmuch as on my then opening the eyelids I perceived a
+distinct upward and other movement of the eyeballs. Each percussion
+stroke of my examination, and even the pressure of the stethoscope,
+produced an expression of pain, which elicited a natural sympathy from
+the mother, and an assertion that a continuance of such examination
+would bring on further fits. On percussing the region of the stomach, I
+most distinctly perceived the sound of gurgling, which we know to be
+caused by the admixture of air and fluid in motion. The most positive
+assertion of the parents was subsequently made that saving a fortnightly
+moistening of her lips with cold water, the child had neither ate nor
+drank anything for the last twenty-three months. The whole region of the
+belly was tympanitic, and the muscular walls of this cavity were tense
+and drum-like--a condition not infrequently concomitant of a well-known
+class of nervous disorders. The child's intellectual faculties and
+special senses were perfectly healthy. Before her illness she was very
+much devoted to religious reading. This devotion has lately considerably
+increased. She is a member of the Church of England, and has been
+confirmed."
+
+Dr. Fowler then adds some other interesting particulars, all going to
+show the impossibility of the girl's being the subject of any exhausting
+disease, or of even having been continuously in bed, as her parents
+asserted, for nearly two years; and then says:--
+
+"The whole case is in fact one of simulative hysteria, in a young girl
+having the propensity to deceive very strongly developed. Therewith may
+be probably associated the power or habit of prolonged fasting. Both
+patient and mother admitted the occasional occurrence of the choking
+sensation called _globus hystericus_."
+
+This letter excited renewed discussion in the newspapers, and a second
+public meeting was called to make arrangements for a second watching. At
+this meeting it was decided to bring down from Guy's Hospital, London,
+several trained nurses, who were to conduct the watching; and the
+following resolutions were adopted, as expressing the terms under which
+the inquiry was to be conducted:--
+
+1. It would be advisable, before taking any steps in the matter, to
+obtain a written legal guarantee from the father of Sarah Jacob
+sanctioning the necessary proceedings. 2. That the duty of the nurses
+shall be to watch Sarah Jacob with a view to ascertain whether she
+partakes of any kind of food, and at the end of a fortnight to report
+upon the case before the local committee in Carmarthenshire, and, if
+required, at Guy's Hospital. 3. That two nurses shall be constantly
+awake and on the watch in the girl's room, night and day. 4. It would be
+advisable for the nearest medical practitioner to watch the progress of
+the case; and it will be absolutely necessary for him to _be prepared
+against any serious symptoms of exhaustion, supervening on the strict
+enforcement of the watching, and to act according to his judgment_. 5.
+That the room in which the girl sleeps shall be bared of all unnecessary
+furniture, and all possible places in the room for the concealment of
+food shall be closed and kept under the continual scrutiny of the
+watchers. 6. That if considered desirable by the local medical
+practitioner, or by the nurses, the bedstead on which the girl now lies
+shall be replaced by a single iron one. 7. That the bed on which the
+parents now sleep, in Sarah Jacob's room, shall be given up absolutely
+to the nurses. 8. That the parents be not allowed to sleep in the same
+room as the girl; that if they cannot at all times be prevented from
+approaching her, they should be previously searched (their pockets and
+other recesses of clothing as well as the interior of their mouths); and
+that no wetted towels or other such articles be allowed to be used about
+the girl by the parents, or any other person save the nurses; that the
+children of the family, and in fact every other person whatever (except
+the nurses), have similar restraints put upon them. 9. That the nurses
+have the sole management of preparing the room, bed, and patient, prior
+to the commencement of the watching. 10. That, as it is asserted the
+action of the bowels and bladder is entirely suspended, special
+attention must be directed to these organs.
+
+Four experienced women nurses were accordingly deputed from Guy's
+Hospital to take the entire charge of Sarah Jacob, and to watch her for
+fourteen days. They were instructed not to prevent her having food if
+she asked for it, but they were to see that she got none without their
+knowledge. On the 9th of December, 1869, at 4 P.M., the room was cleared
+of people and the watching began.
+
+In the first place it was ascertained that the girl had repeated
+evacuations of urine, and once, at least, of fæces.
+
+Gradually evidences of mental and physical disturbance began to appear.
+The watch was so closely kept that no food or drink reached the child,
+and she did not ask for any.
+
+"At 10 P.M.," to quote the language of the journal kept by the sister
+nurse, "she was restless and threw her arms about. She was very cold,
+and the nurses put warm flannels on her. This was the last day on which
+she passed urine."
+
+Thursday, December 16, 3 A.M.--She was rolling from one side of the bed
+to the other. At half-past three she wished the bed made, and they made
+it. She was looking very pale and anxious. Her eyes were sunk and her
+nose pinched, and the cheek bones were prominent. Her arms and hands
+were cold, her feet and legs were the same. Ann Jones, one of the
+nurses, says in her memoranda, "She was very restless and appeared to me
+to be sinking. Her lips were very dry, and her mouth seemed parched."
+The peculiar smell (the starvation smell) about the bed was so strong as
+to make the sister nurse quite ill.
+
+At 11 A.M., the vicar saw her and told the parents that the child was
+gradually failing, and suggested to them the propriety of sending the
+nurses away and giving her a chance to obtain food, but they refused,
+saying that there was nothing to do but what the nurses were doing, and
+that they had seen her quite as weak before. The parents were urged by
+others to give up the fight by sending the nurses away, but they refused
+on the ground that want of food had nothing to do with the symptoms, and
+that she would not eat whether the nurses were there or not.
+
+Ann Jones subsequently testified before the coroner: "Before one and two
+o'clock on Thursday afternoon (Dec. 16), she kept talking to herself. I
+could not understand whether she was speaking Welsh or English. Up to
+that time I could understand her. She pointed her fingers at some books;
+I gave her one, but she took no notice of it; she was not able to read
+it. _Both parents were then told the girl was dying._"
+
+Repeatedly they were begged to withdraw the nurses, and again and again
+they refused, saying there was no occasion--that she had often been in
+that way, that it was not from want of food, etc. The girl became weaker
+and weaker; low, muttering delirium ensued, and on the 17th of December,
+1869, at about half-past three o'clock, P.M., the "Welsh Fasting Girl"
+died, actually starved to death, in the middle of the nineteenth century
+and in one of the most Christian and civilized countries of the world!
+
+But this was not the end. Public opinion was much excited both against
+those who had sanctioned and conducted what appeared to have been a
+senseless and cruel experiment, and against the father and mother who
+had wilfully and persistently refused to allow food to be given to the
+dying child. A coroner's inquest was held, and the coroner appears to
+have made a very satisfactory charge to the jury after the rendition of
+the testimony. He said there could be no doubt of the child having died
+of starvation, and that the responsibility rested with the father, who
+had knowingly and designedly failed to cause his child to take food. The
+mother was not responsible unless it could be shown that she had been
+given food for the child by the father, and had withheld it from her. It
+was marvellous, he said, how the father could have made out such a
+story--such a hideous mass of nonsense, as he had under oath attempted
+to impose on the jury.
+
+The jury deliberated for a quarter of an hour, and then returned a
+verdict of "Died from starvation, caused by negligence to induce the
+child to take food on the part of the father;" which constituted
+manslaughter.
+
+Evan Jacob was therefore arrested. But the Secretary of State for the
+Home Department took the matter up and determined that the proceedings
+should go farther than the local authorities intended. At first it was
+contemplated to indict the members of the General Committee for
+conspiracy, but it was finally concluded to include only the medical
+gentlemen who had accepted the responsibility of superintending the
+watching, as well as both parents of the deceased child.
+
+The initial proceeding took place before a full bench of magistrates,
+and continued eight days. The Crown and the accused had eminent counsel,
+and many witnesses were examined. At the conclusion of the inquiry the
+presiding magistrate announced that it had been determined by the court
+that no case had been made out against the physicians, who had not been
+shown to have undertaken any other duty than that of advising the
+nurses, and that it did not appear that their advice had been asked. As
+to the father and mother the court had decided to send them both for
+trial for manslaughter, at the next assizes. In due time they were
+arraigned, they pleaded not guilty, but after being defended by able
+counsel, the jury, after an absence of about half an hour, returned with
+a verdict of guilty against both the prisoners, but with a
+recommendation of the mother to the merciful consideration of the court,
+on the ground that she was under the control of her husband. The man
+protested his innocence, and the woman "buried her face in her shawl and
+wept bitterly."
+
+His Lordship, in passing sentence, said: "Prisoners at the bar, you have
+been found guilty of a most aggravated offence. I entirely concur with
+the verdict which the jury have given, and I shall act upon the
+recommendation which they have presented in favor of the female
+prisoner, the mother, though, I must say, that I cannot but feel that it
+is a greater crime in the mother than the father, since it is more
+contrary to the common nature of mothers, to neglect their children in
+the manner in which you have treated this unfortunate child. It is
+contrary to the nature, even, of a father. But I shall act upon the
+recommendation of the jury, upon the ground they have put forward, that
+you have been subject to the control of your husband more than has
+appeared from the evidence of the case. But the offence is, as I have
+said, a serious one, on this ground; that there can be no doubt that
+both of you have persisted in this fraudulent deception, upon your
+neighbors, and upon the public, and that in order to carry out that
+fraudulent deception and to preserve yourselves from detection you were
+willing to risk the life of that child. The life of that child has been
+lost in that wicked experiment which you tried. Therefore, the sentence
+that I shall inflict on you, Evan Jacob, is, that you be imprisoned and
+kept at hard labor for twelve calendar months; and that upon you, Hannah
+Jacob, will be more lenient in consideration of the recommendation of
+the jury, and it is, that you be imprisoned and kept to hard labor for
+the period of six calendar months."
+
+Thus ended one of the most remarkable and interesting histories of human
+folly, credulity, and criminality which the present day has produced.
+Comment upon its teaching is scarcely necessary; but the thoughtful
+reader will not fail to perceive how important a bearing it has upon the
+whole subject of belief without full and free inquiry, and that how all
+the facts which science has gathered during ages of painful labor, go
+for naught, even with educated persons, when brought face to face with
+the false assertions of a hysterical girl, and of two ignorant and
+deceitful peasants. If there is any one thing we know, it is that there
+can be no force without the metamorphosis of matter of some kind. Here
+was a girl maintaining her weight--actually growing--her animal heat
+kept at its due standard, her mind active, her heart beating, her lungs
+respiring, her skin exhaling, her limbs moving whenever she wished them
+to move, and all, as very many persons supposed, without the ingestion
+of the material by which alone such things could be. And yet such is the
+tendency of the average human mind to be deceived, that it would be
+perfectly possible to re-enact in the city of New York the whole tragedy
+of Sarah Jacob, should ever a hysterical girl take it into head to do
+so; and there would not be wanting, even from among those who might read
+this history, individuals who would credit any monstrous declarations
+she might make. Even now in a little town in Belgium, an ecstatic girl
+is going through the same performance with extraordinary additions, and
+books are written by learned physicians and theologians, with the object
+of establishing the truth of her pretensions. To this most remarkable
+instance, and one other of similar though perhaps even more remarkable
+characteristic, the attention of the reader will presently be invited.
+But in view of these things one is almost tempted to say with Cardinal
+Carafa, "_Quandoquidem populus decipi vult, decipiatur_."
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[3] "De puella quæ sine cibo et potu vitam transigit." Parisiis Ann.
+MDXLII.
+
+[4] "Παρατηρήσεων sive observationum medicarum, rararum, novarum,
+admirabilium, et monstrosarum. Volumen, tomis septem de toto homine
+institutum." Lugduni 1606, p. 306.
+
+These cases are cited by Wanley in his "Wonders of the Little World,"
+but I have taken care in most instances to refer to the originals,
+several of which are in my library.
+
+[5] "Wonders of the Little World." London, 1806, p. 375.
+
+[6] Opuscula Medica. Parisiis, 1639, pp. 64, 65, 66.
+
+[7] Observationum et curationum chirurgicarum, centuria secunda. Genevæ,
+1611, p. 116.
+
+[8] Wonderful Characters: By Henry Wilson and James Caulfield. London.
+
+[9] British Medical Journal, July 16, 1870.
+
+[10] A complete History of the Welsh Fasting Girl (Sarah Jacob,) with
+Comments thereon, and Observations on Death from Starvation. London,
+1871.
+
+
+
+
+III.
+
+ABSTINENCE FROM FOOD WITH STIGMATIZATION.
+
+
+One hundred and fifty-three persons have at one time or another,
+according to Dr. Imbert-Gourbeyre,[11] received the stigmata; that is,
+been marked in a miraculous manner with the wounds received by Christ at
+the crucifixion. Of these, eight, are according to the same authority
+now living, and two assert that they do not eat. I propose to consider
+at some length the main points in the histories of these two, Palma
+d'Oria and Louise Lateau, and in so doing I shall avail myself of the
+works of those, who are firm believers in the miraculous interposition
+of God to produce the effects, of which they are said to be the
+subjects. These cases are very little known in this country. Instances
+of the kind are extremely rare among practical common sense nations,
+like those inhabiting the British Isles, and their descendants in
+America. Of the whole one hundred and fifty-three cases recorded by Dr.
+Imbert-Gourbeyre, but one--Jane Gray--was British, and hers is the most
+doubtful case in the list, for the fact rests only on the testimony of
+one Thomas Bourchier, an English minor brother, who asserts that she had
+the stigmata in the feet. Of the remainder, the very large majority are
+of Italy, and as Dr. Imbert-Gourbeyre says:
+
+"Quel pays fut jamais si fertile en miracles?"[12]
+
+To the account of a visit made to Oria for the purpose of studying the
+phenomena exhibited by Palma, made by Dr. Imbert-Gourbeyre, I am
+indebted for the following details:
+
+Palma, at the time of the visit in 1871, was sixty-six years old,
+hump-backed, thin, small, and with light, expressive eyes. For several
+years she had not left the house, and was, on account of her sufferings,
+scarcely able to walk. Occasionally, when she felt particularly well,
+she took a few steps about the room supported by a cane. In her youth
+she had been very strong and active.
+
+At the first interview, after some conversation in the course of which
+Palma declared that she had often seen Louise Lateau while in ecstasy,
+the doctor directed the conversation towards the subject of
+hallucination. While thus engaged and seated close to Palma, he felt her
+strike him gently on the arm, and at the same time saw the abbé, who had
+come with him, fall on his knees. He turned toward Palma; her eyes were
+closed, her hands clasped, her mouth wide open, and on her tongue he saw
+the host--the body of Christ. Immediately, he fell on his knees also,
+and worshipped it. Palma protruded her tongue still farther, as if she
+wanted to give him every opportunity of seeing that the host was really
+there; then she ate it, closed her mouth and remained perfectly quiet on
+the sofa upon which she was reclining. It was then almost four o'clock
+in the afternoon, the day was fading, the room was badly lit by a little
+window, high from the floor. The miraculous host appeared to him to be
+as white as wax, and somewhat thick. On account of the little light, and
+the short time that this extraordinary communion lasted, he was unable
+to determine whether or not it was marked according to the custom of the
+church.
+
+In regard to this wonderful event--that is, if it be not a fact viewed
+unequally--it is further to be said that Palma disclosed to Dr.
+Imbert-Gourbeyre, that two or three times, the holy element, which be it
+remembered is believed by the great majority of Christians to be the
+real body of Christ, was brought to her by the devil, and that then she
+refused it. Sometimes he had the figure of an angel, but she knew him by
+the sign of reprobation which he wore on his forehead--a little horn.
+Moreover she saw that the wicked creature hesitated, and was a little
+embarrassed. She intoned the _Gloria Patri_, and made the sign of the
+cross, and he instantly took flight and disappeared. In order to
+ascertain what it all meant, her confessor forbade her to receive the
+miraculous communion for eight days. Hardly had that period expired when
+Jesus Christ himself brought her the communion. Before giving it to her
+he made her recite the _Gloria Patri_ three times. Then he said to her,
+"Have I fled as the demon did? No. Therefore reassure yourself. It is
+really I."
+
+These miraculous circumstances had been going on for about two years
+when Dr. Imbert-Gourbeyre made his visit to Palma. Sometimes it was
+brought to her by Christ, as in the instance specified, or by some
+saint, as St. Peter, St. Vincent de Paul, St. Francis d'Assisi, in the
+company of her guardian angel, and other saints and angels. At other
+times it was brought by priests and confessors of the olden time, long
+since dead.
+
+An Italian bishop stated, that at the moment of the miraculous sacrament
+on one occasion, he had seen the host flying through the air before
+entering Palma's mouth, but the doctor questioned her attendant on this
+point, and she declared that she had not seen that, and she assured him
+that the host was never seen by any one till it rested on Palma's
+tongue. The doctor inclines to the belief that the attendant was right,
+but he states that nevertheless a French apostolic missionary had
+asserted that he had seen the same thing.
+
+Well, if the consecrated bread be really the body of Christ that was
+given for the salvation of the world, what horrible blasphemy to state
+such things of it, what vileness to believe them, what a barefaced
+imputation on the reason of man to spread these shocking details before
+him and ask him to accept them as true of the God he worships!
+
+After witnessing the communion, Dr. Imbert-Gourbeyre was requested to
+withdraw into the adjoining room, while Palma got ready for her other
+performances. In a few minutes he was informed that all was in order.
+One of the women went in first and returning immediately, the others
+were invited to enter. The stigmatization had already begun on the
+forehead. He saw a stream of blood flowing from the left frontal
+eminence along the side of the nose. A handkerchief was given to Palma;
+she held it to her nose for a moment and the hæmorrhage soon stopped. He
+examined the blood and found that it did not differ in appearance, color
+or temperature from ordinary blood. He then examined the handkerchief,
+and besides numerous rotund spots he perceived other figures resembling
+hearts, with stains of blood proceeding from them, indicating the flames
+of love. All this appeared to him to be very extraordinary, for though
+he had often seen people bleed from the nose, he had never seen them
+bleed like that.
+
+After this incident Palma continued the performances--_actions de grace_
+he calls them--her hands clasped and her eyes closed. In the lower
+limbs, especially the left, there was a tremor like a nervous trembling
+which was soon quieted. After a few minutes she rubbed her hands
+together, made the sign of the cross and returned naturally to the
+conversation. He then examined her forehead and endeavored to ascertain
+where the blood had come from. The skin was intact without the least
+opening. She showed him above the right frontal eminence a hole in the
+cranium, from which at a former period, five little pieces of bone had
+been discharged. The opening was entirely covered over by the scalp, and
+he was surprised to find that there was no cicatrix. It was round, the
+end of his index finger entered it readily, and it was just such an
+opening as would have been produced by the crown of a trephine. At the
+time it was made, the skin opened to allow of the exit of the pieces of
+bone; then it closed without leaving the trace of a scar. It was the
+same with the stigmata. They closed at once without there being any
+marks to indicate the place whence the blood had flowed. This hole in
+the skull had been caused by some particular circumstances that no one
+was willing to reveal to him, but which he says are reported in the
+journal of the directors of this woman, and which will soon be
+published. Most medical men will come to the conclusion that it was due
+to caries and necrosis of the bone, of syphilitic origin.
+
+During another visit Palma told Dr. Imbert-Gourbeyre that she had eaten
+nothing for seven years, but that she was obliged to drink frequently on
+account of the great internal heat, which like a fire consumed her. She
+then drank in his presence two carafes of water at one time, and the
+doctor states that "this water became so hot in her stomach that it was
+vomited boiling. She also had often ejected from her mouth oil, and
+another fluid of a balsamic character, in which, on standing for some
+time, bodies resembling the consecrated host were formed."
+
+The doctor then relates the following details, which I give in his own
+words, in further illustration of the character of his mental
+organization and of the pretensions put forth by the woman, whose word
+seems to have been sufficient to convince him of anything at all, no
+matter how preposterous. Four years previously he had been so
+unfortunate as to lose by death his eldest child:
+
+"A year after his death, I had met a woman of great renown for piety,
+and who was even regarded as a receiver of celestial communications. I
+had commended my poor Joseph to her. Some time after she assured me that
+my son was saved, and that he was in paradise. She declared that in a
+vision she had seen him near our Lord; he was happy. Various
+circumstances, which it is useless to mention here, had caused me to
+believe in the truth of this asserted revelation. Being in Oria, I
+wished to have as much certainty as possible in regard to the matter,
+and as I knew that Palma was in spiritual communication with many pious
+souls scattered over the earth, I said to her in the course of our
+conversation, 'tell me, Palma, do you know M. ---- de X----,' giving her
+the baptismal name of the woman in question. 'No sir,' she answered. I
+then related to her my history in detail, taking care not to ask her
+opinion in advance, although I felt sure that she would explain the
+thing to me. She listened with the utmost attention to the superioress
+who translated my words, and when Mother Becaud came to say that the
+woman had had a vision of my son, and that he was in paradise, Palma
+stretched out her arm in a solemn manner as a sign of negative, and said
+to me, 'He is saved, but he is still in purgatory.'
+
+"'Is it possible? Palma,' I cried, profoundly moved: 'Since you tell me
+this, you are in conscience bound to get him out of that place of
+expiation as soon as possible, and I commend him immediately to your
+prayers.'
+
+"'Yes, sir,' she said, 'I will pray for him, and when I am sure of his
+deliverance, I will send you word by Father de Pace.'
+
+"The following morning at my visit I again commended my poor child to
+Palma, and on the following Friday evening on taking leave of her, I
+asked if she had prayed that morning for my son, 'No sir,' she answered.
+'I will only do so on the day of All Saints.' 'Then,' said I to Palma,
+'will you allow madame the superioress to take the answer?' 'Very
+willingly,' said the seeress. On the 7th of November, I received at Nice
+the following letter:
+
+    "'SIR,
+
+    "'I have fulfilled the promise which I made to you in accordance
+    with your wish to go to Palma on All Saints Day, in order to
+    ascertain whether or not your wishes in regard to your son had been
+    granted. That good soul assured me twice that he had gone to heaven
+    that very morning, God be praised a thousand times!
+
+    "'Thus sir, I have done what I could for your consolation.
+
+                          "'I have the honor to be, etc.
+
+                                               "'Sister Marie Becaud.'
+
+"This letter was post marked at Oria, November 2d."
+
+I should not venture to insult the intelligence of the reader with these
+idiotic details but for the reasons stated, and additionally, that they
+carry conviction with them to thousands of minds, honest doubtless, but
+which are accustomed to grovel in superstition, and falsehood, which
+they are unable to test by right standards.
+
+A phase in Palma's spiritual pathology has been alluded to cursorily,
+but has not yet been considered with the fulness proper in connection
+with stigmatization, and that is the occurrence of hæmorrhagic spots on
+various parts of her body, and which she so managed as to convey the
+idea that they were symbolical of various holy things. On the back of
+her hand she convinced Dr. Imbert-Gourbeyre that she bled in the shape
+of the cross, and he gives a wood-cut representing a cross on the dorsum
+of the hand, a little above the space between the first and second
+fingers. This is surrounded by other rectilinear figures. On her breast
+and back, other figures were obtained by placing handkerchiefs on the
+parts. The doctor thus procured several mementoes of his visit, in the
+shape of pieces of linen stained with spots of blood somewhat resembling
+hearts, with flames coming out of them, suns, roses, crosses, etc. He
+gives several plates in his book representing these figures, of the
+reality of the miraculous formation of which he has not the slightest
+doubt.
+
+Another phenomenon has also been mentioned incidentally, and that is the
+intense heat which Palma declared she felt, and which the doctor refers
+to as the "divine fire." He had brought with him from Paris, a
+thermometer to use in determining the extraordinary temperature of this
+fire. He examined her with this instrument while she felt this divine
+fire, but failed to find any abnormal increase; her pulse at the time
+was 72. "I made this experiment," he says, "to satisfy my scientific
+conscience, [God save the mark!] but I ought to say that I was ashamed
+of myself for presuming to measure this divine fire by such an
+instrument." He is right, science is not for him, or those like him.
+
+On one occasion while Palma was in ecstasy, Antonietta, who was near
+her, laid bare her chest a little, and cried with enthusiasm, "she is
+burning!" Dr. Imbert-Gourbeyre approached and smelt something like the
+burning of linen. The dress was opened and her chemise was found to be
+burnt on the left side just over the collar bone, and immediately below
+this, scorched in the shape of "a magnificent emblem representing a
+monstrance. The fire was invisible, but its traces were very evident."
+
+In a note he states that it was affirmed that Palma's temperature on
+similar occasions had reached 100° centigrade, (212° Fahrenheit) a fact
+which he does not doubt, although his thermometer did not show it. "That
+her chemise," he says, "burnt by invisible fire, which escaped the
+thermometer, was more extraordinary than if the instrument had indicated
+a temperature of 100°."
+
+I shall not stop now to comment further on the circumstances detailed by
+Dr. Imbert-Gourbeyre, and of which I have cited but a small part. I will
+only say at present that science and common sense would conclude in
+regard to Palma d'Oria,
+
+1st. That she had probably at a former period contracted syphilis.
+
+2d. That she was strongly hysterical.
+
+3d. That she was the subject of purpura hæmorrhagica.
+
+4th. That she was a most unmitigated humbug and liar.
+
+And now we come to the consideration of a case of stigmatization which
+has greatly stirred both the theological and the scientific world of
+Europe--that of Louise Lateau--and here again I shall draw largely,
+though by no means exclusively, from the works of the believers in the
+miraculous production of the phenomena manifested.[13]
+
+Louise Lateau was born at Bois-d'Haine, a small village in Belgium, on
+the 30th of January, 1850. She was reared in the utmost poverty, was
+chlorotic, and did not menstruate till she was eighteen years old. She
+loved solitude and silence, and when not engaged in work--and she does
+not appear to have labored much--she spent her time in meditation and
+prayer. She was subject to paroxysms of ecstasy, during which, as many
+other ecstasies, she spoke very edifying things, of charity, poverty,
+and the priesthood. She saw St. Ursula, St. Roch, St. Theresa, and the
+Holy Virgin. Persons who saw her in these states declared that, while
+lying on the bed, her whole body was raised up more than a foot high,
+the heels alone being in contact with the bed.
+
+The stigmatization ensued very soon after these seizures. On a Friday
+she bled from the left side of her chest. On the following Friday this
+flow was renewed, and in addition, blood escaped from the dorsal
+surfaces of both feet; and on the third Friday, not only did she bleed
+from the side and feet, but also from the dorsal and palmar surface of
+both hands. Every succeeding Friday the blood flowed from these places,
+and finally other points of exit were established on the forehead and
+between the shoulders.
+
+At first these bleedings only took place at night, but after two or
+three months they occurred in the daytime, and were accompanied by
+paroxysms of ecstasy, during which she was insensible to all external
+impressions, and acted the passion of Jesus and the crucifixion.
+
+M. Warlomont, being commissioned by the Royal Academy of Medicine of
+Belgium to examine Louise Lateau, went to her house, accompanied by
+several friends, and made a careful examination of her person. At that
+time, Friday morning at six o'clock, the blood was flowing freely from
+all the stigmata. In a few moments the sacrament would be brought to
+her, and then the second act of the drama would begin. The scene that
+followed can be best described in M. Warlomont's own words:
+
+"It is a quarter-past six. 'Here comes the communion,' said M. Niels [a
+priest], 'kneel down.' Louise fell on her knees on the floor, closed her
+eyes and crossed her hands, on which the communion-cloth was extended. A
+priest, followed by several acolytes, entered; the penitent put out her
+tongue, received the holy wafer, and then remained immovable in the
+attitude of prayer.
+
+"We observed her with more care than seemed to have been hitherto given
+to her at similar periods. Some thought that she was simply in a state
+of meditation, from which she would emerge in the course of half an hour
+or so. But it was a mistake. Having taken the communion, the penitent
+went into a special state. Her immobility was that of a statue, her eyes
+were closed; on raising the eyelids the pupils were seen to be largely
+dilated, immovable, and apparently insensible to light. Strong pressure
+made upon the parts in the vicinity of the stigmata caused no sensation
+of pain, although a few moments before they were exquisitely tender.
+Pricking the skin gave no evidence of the slightest sensibility. A limb,
+on being raised, offered no resistance, and sank slowly back to its
+former position. Anæsthesia was complete, unless the cornea remained
+still impressionable. The pulse had fallen from 120 to 100 pulsations.
+At a given moment I raised one of the eyelids, and M. Verriest quickly
+touched the cornea. Louise at once seemed to recover herself from a
+sound sleep, arose and walked to a chair, upon which she seated herself.
+'This time,' I said, 'we have wakened her.' 'No,' said M. Niels, looking
+at his watch, 'it was time for her to awake.'"
+
+She remained conscious; the blood still continued to flow; the
+anæsthesia had ceased, her pulse rose to 120, and at the end of half an
+hour she was herself. "Our first visit ended here. At half-past eleven
+we made another. The poor child had resumed her attitude of extreme
+suffering, against which she contended with all the energy that remained
+to her. The wounds in the hands still continued to bleed. M. Verriest
+auscultated with care the lungs, heart, and great vessels, and found the
+_bruit de souffle_, which he had detected in the morning at the apex of
+the heart and over the carotids. The handle of a spoon pressed against
+the velum, the base of the tongue, and the pharynx, provoked no effort
+at vomiting. The glasses of our spectacles, as they came in contact with
+the air expired, were covered with vapor. As the patient appeared to
+suffer from our presence, we went away.
+
+"We made our third visit at two o'clock. There were still fifteen
+minutes before the beginning of the ecstatic crisis, which always took
+place punctually at a quarter past two and ended at about half past
+four. The pupils at this time were slightly contracted, the eyelids were
+almost entirely closed; the eyes, looking at nothing, were veiled from
+our view. We tried in vain to attract her attention; her mind was
+otherwise engaged, and her pains were evidently becoming more intense.
+At exactly a quarter past two her eyes became fixed in a direction above
+and to the right. The ecstasy had begun.
+
+"The time had now come to introduce those who were prompted by
+curiosity. This could now be done without inconvenience, for the
+ecstatic, for the ensuing two hours, would be lost to the appreciation
+of what might be passing around her. The room crowded, could hold about
+ten persons, but enough were allowed to enter to make the total
+twenty-five. These placed themselves in two ranks, of which the front
+one kneeling, allowed the rear ones to see all that was going on. All
+this was done under the direction of M. le Curé, who took every pains to
+give us a good view of what was going to happen.
+
+"Louise was seated on the edge of her chair; her body, inclined forward,
+seemed to wish to follow the direction of her eyes, which did not look,
+but were fixed on vacancy. Her eyes were opened to their fullest
+extent, of a dull, lustreless appearance, turned above and to the right,
+and of an absolute immobility. A few workings of the lids were now
+observed and became more frequent if the eyelids were touched. The
+pupils, largely dilated, showed very little sensibility to light, and
+all that remained of vision was shown by slight winking when the hand
+was suddenly brought close to the eyes. The whole face lacked
+expression. At certain moments, either spontaneously or as a consequence
+of divers provocations, a light smile, to which the muscles of the face
+generally did not contribute, wandered over her lips. Then the face
+resumed its primitive expression, and thus she remained for the
+half-hour which constituted the 'first station.'
+
+"The 'second station' was that of genuflection. It had failed at one
+time, but had again appeared. The young girl fell on her knees, clasped
+her hands, and remained for about a quarter of an hour in the attitude
+of contemplation. Then she arose and again resumed her sitting posture.
+
+"The 'third station' began at three o'clock. Louise inclined herself a
+little forward, raised her body slowly, and then extended herself at
+full length, face downward, on the floor. There was neither rigidity nor
+extreme precipitation; nothing in fact, calculated to produce injuries.
+The knees first supported her body, then it rested on these and the
+elbows, and finally her face was brought in actual close contact with
+the tiled floor. At first the head rested on the left arm, but very soon
+the patient made a quick and sudden movement, and the arms were extended
+from the body in the form of a cross. At the same time the feet were
+brought together so that the dorsum of the right was in contact with
+the sole of the left foot. This position did not vary for an hour and a
+half. When the end of the crisis approached, the arms were brought close
+to the sides of the body, then suddenly the poor girl rose to her knees,
+her face turns to the wall, her cheeks become colored, her eyes have
+regained their expression, her countenance expands, and the ecstasy is
+at an end."
+
+Further particulars are given, and an apparatus was constructed and
+applied to Louise's hand and arm so as to prevent any external
+excitation of the hæmorrhage. It was apparently shown that there was no
+such interference, for the blood began to flow at the usual time on
+Friday.
+
+In addition to the stigmata and the paroxysms of ecstasy, Louise
+declared that she did not sleep, had eaten or drank nothing for four
+years, had had no fæcal evacuation for three years and a half, and that
+the urine was entirely suppressed.
+
+M. Warlomont examined the blood and products of respiration chemically,
+and satisfied himself of their normal character, except that the former
+contained an excessive amount of white corpuscles.
+
+When being closely interrogated, Louise admitted that, though she did
+not sleep, she had short periods of forgetfulness at night. On M.
+Warlomont suddenly opening a cupboard in her room, he found it to
+contain fruit and bread, and her chamber communicated directly with a
+yard at the back of the house. It was therefore perfectly possible for
+her to have slept, eaten, defecated, and urinated, without any one
+knowing that she did so.
+
+The conclusions arrived at by M. Warlomont were, that the
+stigmatizations and ecstasies of Louise Lateau were real and to be
+explained upon well-known physiological and pathological principles,
+that she "worked, and dispensed heat, that she lost every Friday a
+certain quantity of blood by the stigmata, that the air she expired
+contained the vapor of water and carbonic acid, that her weight had not
+materially altered since she had come under observation. She consumes
+carbon and it is not from her own body that she gets it. Where does she
+get it from? Physiology answers, 'She eats.'"
+
+Relative to the assumed abstinence in the cases of Palma d'Oria, Louise
+Lateau and other subjects of ecstasy and stigmata, it is not necessary,
+in view of the remarks already made on this subject in a previous
+chapter, to devote further consideration to it here. The conclusion
+arrived at by M. Warlomont is the only one which science can tolerate.
+Should Louise Lateau or Palma d'Oria ever be subjected to as close
+watching as was the poor little Welsh Fasting Girl, Sarah Jacob, it will
+certainly terminate as badly for them as for her, unless they yield to
+the demands of nature and take the food which the organism requires.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[11] Les Stigmatisées; Palma d'Oria, etc. 2d Edition, Paris, 1873, p.
+263.
+
+[12] Op. cit., t. ii.
+
+[13] For the theological view of this remarkable case the reader is
+referred to the following works, a part only of those written in support
+of her pretensions. "Louise Lateau de Bois-d'Haine, sa vie, ses extases,
+ses stigmates: étude Médicale," par le Dr. Lefebvre, Louvain, 1873. "Les
+stigmatisées; Louise Lateau, etc.," par le Docteur A. Imbert-Gourbeyre,
+Paris, 1873. "Biographie de Louise Lateau," par H. Van Looy, Tournai,
+Paris and Leipzig, 1874. "Louise Lateau de Bois-d'Haine etc.," par le
+Dr. A. Rohling, Paris, 1874. "Louise Lateau, ihr Wunderleben u.s.w.,"
+Von Paul Majunke, Berlin, 1875.
+
+Among the treatises in which the miracle is denied, and the phenomena
+attributed to either disease or fraud are; "Louise Lateau; Rapport
+Médical sur la stigmatisée de Bois-d'Haine, fait à l'académie royale de
+médecine de Belgique," par le Dr. Warlomont, Bruxelles and Paris, 1875.
+"Science et miracle, Louise Lateau, ou la stigmatisée Belge," par le Dr.
+Bourneville, Paris, 1875. "Les Miracles," par M. Virchow, Revue des
+cours scientifiques, January 23rd 1875.
+
+
+
+
+IV.
+
+THE BROOKLYN CASE.
+
+
+For several years past there have been rumors more or less definite in
+character that a young lady in Brooklyn was not only living without
+food, but was possessed of some mysterious faculty by which she could
+foretell events, read communications without the aid of the eyes, and
+accurately describe occurrences in distant places, through clairvoyance
+or whatever other name may be applied to the influence.
+
+Finally, in the _New York Herald_ of October 20th, 1878, appeared an
+account, headed "Life without Food. An Invalid Lady who for fourteen
+years has lived without nourishment." As this account is apparently
+authentic, and as the statements made have never been contradicted, I do
+not hesitate to quote from it. Some of the letters which have appeared
+in response to a proposition I offered, and to which fuller reference
+will presently be made, have accused me of dragging the young lady
+before the public. It will be seen, however, that her friends and
+physicians are responsible for all the publicity given to the case.
+
+Leaving out of consideration for the present the alleged marvellous
+endowments of this young lady, as regards seeing without her eyes,
+second sight, etc., I quote from the _Herald_ the essential points
+relative to her clinical history and abstinence from food:
+
+"In a modest, secluded house at the corner of Myrtle Avenue and Downing
+Street, Brooklyn, lives an invalid lady afflicted with paralysis, with a
+history so remarkable and extraordinary that, notwithstanding it is
+vouched for by physicians of standing, it is almost incredible. It is
+claimed that for a period of nearly fourteen years she has lived
+absolutely without food or nourishment of any kind. The case has been
+kept by the family of the patient a well guarded secret, it having led
+them to a strict seclusion as the only means of protection against the
+visits of the curious and incredulous.
+
+"The name of the remarkable person is Miss Mollie Fancher. To the half
+dozen medical gentlemen who have seen and attended her, her case is
+inexplicable. To learn the history of the strange case a _Herald_
+reporter yesterday called on several persons familiar with the facts.
+The first person seen was Dr. Ormiston, of No. 74 Hanson Place,
+Brooklyn, who attended her. He said:--'It seems incredible, but from
+everything I can learn Mollie Fancher never eats. The elder Miss
+Fancher, her aunt, who takes care of her, is a lady of the highest
+intelligence. She was at one time quite wealthy, and she has at present
+a comfortable income. I have every reason to believe that her statements
+are in every detail reliable. During a dozen visits to the sick chamber
+I have never detected evidence of the patient having eaten a morsel.'"
+
+After interviewing a lady intimate with the family, the reporter sought
+out Dr. Speir, the attending physician of the patient, and thus details
+his experience with that gentleman:
+
+"Dr. Speir was found in his comfortable little office, and the errand of
+the writer made known:--
+
+"'Is it true, Doctor, that a patient of yours has lived for fourteen
+years without taking food?'
+
+"'If you refer to Miss Fancher, yes. She became my patient in 1864. Her
+case is a most remarkable one.'
+
+"'But has she eaten nothing during all these years?'
+
+"'I can safely say she has not.'
+
+"'Are the family also willing to vouch for the truth of this
+extraordinary statement?'
+
+"'You will find them very reticent to newspaper men and to strangers
+generally. I do not believe any food--that is, solids--ever passed the
+woman's lips since her attack of paralysis, consequent upon her mishap.
+As for an occasional teaspoonful of water or milk, I sometimes force her
+to take it by using an instrument to pry open her mouth, but that is
+painful to her. As early as 1865 I endeavored to sustain life in this
+way, for I feared that, in obedience to the universal law of nature, she
+would die of gradual inanition or exhaustion, which I thought would
+sooner or later ensue; but I was mistaken. The case knocks the bottom
+out of all existing medical theories, and is, in a word, miraculous.'
+
+"'Did you ever,' asked the reporter, 'make an experiment to satisfy your
+professional accuracy in regard to her abstinence?'
+
+"'Several times I have given her emetics on purpose to discover the
+truth; but the result always confirmed the statement that she had taken
+no food. It sounds strangely, but it is so. I have taken every
+precaution against deception, sometimes going into the house at eleven
+or twelve o'clock at night, without being announced, but have always
+found her the same, and lying in the same position occupied by her for
+the entire period of her invalidity. The springs of her bedstead are
+actually worn out with the constant pressure. My brethren in the medical
+profession at first were inclined to laugh at me, and call me a fool and
+spiritualist when I told them of the long abstinence and keen mental
+powers of my interesting patient. But such as have been admitted to see
+her are convinced. These are Dr. Ormiston, Dr. Elliott and Dr.
+Hutchison, some of the best talent in the city, who have seen and
+believed.'"
+
+And then the following account is given of the accident from which the
+young lady suffered, and to which the remarkable phenomena she is said
+to exhibit are ascribed:
+
+"The story of Miss Fancher's accident and its melancholy consequences is
+quite affecting. It is collected from the various statements given by
+half a dozen friends of the family to the _Herald_ reporter. Interwoven
+with it is a thread of romance, a tale of early love and courtship, of a
+life embittered by a cruel accident, of patient waiting, and a final
+release of the suitor from his engagement to marry another.
+
+"Mary's parents live in a sumptuous dwelling on Washington Avenue,
+Brooklyn, and were reported to be wealthy. Their favorite daughter
+Mollie, as she was called, was sent to Prof. West's High School in
+Brooklyn at an early age, and here developed many brilliant qualities of
+mind and heart, which augured well for her future. At seventeen she was
+pretty, petite and well cultivated. As a member of the Washington Avenue
+Baptist Sunday School, she met and learned to love a classmate, named
+John Taylor. An engagement followed the intimacy of the Sunday School
+class, and the young people looked forward with buoyant spirits to the
+bright life so soon to dawn upon them.
+
+"But fate decreed differently. While getting off a Fulton Street car one
+day in 1864, on her return from school, the young lady slipped and fell
+backward. Her skirt caught on the step unseen by the conductor, who
+started the car on its way again. The poor girl was dragged some ten or
+fifteen yards before her cries were heard and the brake applied. When
+picked up she was insensible and was carried, suffering intense agony
+from an injured spine, to her home near by. Forty-eight hours afterward
+she was seized with a violent spasm which lasted for over two days. Then
+came a trance, when the sufferer grew cold and rigid, with no evidence
+of life beyond a warm spot under the left breast, where feeble
+pulsations of her heart were detected by Dr. Speir. Only this gentleman
+believed she was alive, and it was due to his constant assertion of the
+girl's ultimate recovery that Miss Fancher was not buried. Despite the
+best medical help and the application of restoratives, no change was
+brought about in the patient's condition until the tenth week, when the
+strange suspension of life ceased and breath was once more inhaled and
+breathed forth from her lungs.
+
+"To their dismay the doctors then found that Mollie had lost her sight
+and the power of deglutition, the latter affliction rendering it
+impossible for her to swallow food or even articulate by the use of
+tongue or lip. Previous to her trance a moderate quantity of food had
+been given her each day; but since then she has not taken a mouthful of
+life-sustaining food. Spasms and trances alternated with alarming
+frequency since Miss Fancher was first attacked. First her limbs only
+became rigid and disturbed at the caprice of her strange malady; but as
+time passed her whole frame writhed as if in great pain, requiring to be
+held by main force in order to remain in the bed. She could swallow
+nothing, and lay utterly helpless until moved."
+
+In the _Sun_, of November 24th, 1878, a fuller account of this young
+lady was given, mainly however, in regard to her "clairvoyant," or
+"second-sight" power. Relative to her abstinence from food, I quote the
+following conversation between the reporter and Dr. Speir.
+
+"'Is it true that she has not partaken of food in all these thirteen
+years?'
+
+"'No: I cannot say that she has not; I have not been constantly with her
+for thirteen years; she may have taken food in my absence. Her friends
+have used every device to make her take nourishment. Food has been
+forced upon her, and artificial means have been resorted to that it
+might be carried to her stomach. Nevertheless, the amount in the
+aggregate must have been very small in all these years.'
+
+"'You have considered the case of such extraordinary importance as to
+take many physicians to see it?'
+
+"'I have, and it has excited very much of attention. I have letters
+about it from far and near, and the medical journals have asked for
+information.'"
+
+And this with Dr. Ormiston:
+
+"Dr. Robert Ormiston, who has been one of Miss Fancher's physicians from
+the first, who has seen her constantly in all the different conditions
+of her system, said yesterday that he was convinced that there could be
+no deception. He could find no motive for it, and he did not believe
+that she had attempted it. As to her not partaking of food, he had with
+Dr. Speir made tests that satisfied him that she ate no more than she
+pretended to, and in the aggregate it had not, in all these years,
+amounted to more than the amount eaten at a single meal by a healthy
+man. Dr. Ormiston narrated many curious incidents of the girl's illness,
+and verified the facts of her physical condition as narrated elsewhere."
+
+In order that no injustice may be done to these gentlemen, I quote the
+following from the _Sun_ of November 26th:
+
+"Dr. R. Fleet Speir, one of Miss Fancher's physicians, smiled last
+evening when the _Sun_ reporter asked him what he thought of Dr.
+Hammond's opinions on the case. 'I probably have just as high an opinion
+of Dr. Hammond's opinions as Dr. Hammond has of mine,' he said. 'My
+opinion on the case of Miss Fancher I have always refused to give to any
+one. When I first took the case, years ago, I told the family that I
+would not give them an opinion on it; that I would do what I could with
+it, and that I hoped to bring about a cure. I do not believe in
+clairvoyance or second sight, or anything of the kind. I think I stand
+with the most rigid school on that subject.'
+
+"'But do you think Miss Fancher deceives or endeavors to?'
+
+"The Doctor smiled again. 'Now I do not want you to interview me on
+that. My theory has along been to do nothing to irritate my patient; I
+humored her, and have endeavored in that way to get her confidence, to
+get complete control of her, if possible. In that way I may get her
+mind diverted, and by and by get her out of bed. I have hoped to see her
+cured. I do not see what earthly good a scientific investigation would
+do her. On the contrary, it would harm her. Put a relay of physicians to
+watch her, and she would undoubtedly do her best to beat them. She would
+hold out against them, and likely as not die.'
+
+"Dr. Robert Ormiston said that he thought that the Brooklyn physicians
+knew quite as much about the case as their New York brethren, and that
+their opinions were of as much weight. 'It has become a most interesting
+case from a medical standpoint, because during her long illness, she has
+gone through all the different phases of hysteria that have heretofore
+been observed in many different cases. I think I am correct in this
+statement.'"
+
+From all that can be ascertained therefore, it appears that the young
+lady in question received a severe injury to the spinal cord, in
+consequence of which she became paralyzed in the lower extremities, in
+which members contractions also took place. It is probable also that the
+great sympathetic nerve and brain were involved in the injury.
+
+Confined to her bed, her bodily temperature being low, and passing a
+good of her time in trances or periods of insensibility, the
+requirements of the system as regarded food would necessarily be
+limited. But this is the most that can be said. She _did_ breathe, her
+heart _did_ beat, she required _some_ bodily heat, and the various other
+functions of her organism could not have been maintained without the
+expenditure of matter of some kind. During abstinence from food the body
+itself is consumed for these purposes, and there being no renovation,
+no supplies from without, it loses weight with every instant of time
+until death finally ensues. An emaciated person can withstand this drain
+less effectually than one who is stout and fat.
+
+Again, it is said that the food taken by Miss Fancher was at once
+rejected. That it was _all_ rejected, is in the highest degree
+improbable; a portion remained, and this portion, small as it was, did
+good service when very little was required.
+
+Another point: that Miss Fancher was hysterical admits of no doubt.
+Hysteria is a disease as much in some cases beyond the control of the
+patient as inflammation of the brain or any other disease. A proclivity
+to simulation and deception is just as much a symptom of hysteria as
+pain is of pleurisy. To say, therefore, that she simulated abstinence
+and deceived us to the quantity of food she took, is no imputation on
+her honesty, or questioning her possession of as high a degree of honor
+and trust, as can be claimed by any one. Other women naturally as moral
+as she, have under the influence of hysteria perpetrated the grossest
+deceptions, and they are not unfrequently manifested in the very same
+way that hers apparently are. Her case is by no means an isolated one;
+it is not such as has never been seen before; it does not "knock the
+bottom out of all existing medical theories, and is in a word
+miraculous," as one of the physicians is reported to have said. On the
+contrary, similar ones are often met with as we have seen, and the
+following which I quote from Millingen,[14] is so like it in many
+respects, that the two might have been formed after a common model, as
+in fact they were, just as two or more cases of pneumonia follow a well
+defined type.
+
+"Another wonderful instance of the same kind is that of Janet McLeod,
+published by Dr. McKenzie. She was at the time thirty-three years of
+age, unmarried, and from the age of fifteen had had various attacks of
+epilepsy, which had produced so rigid a lock-jaw that her mouth could
+rarely be forced open by any contrivance; she had lost very nearly the
+power of speech and deglutition, and with this all desire to eat or
+drink. Her lower limbs were contracted towards her body; she was
+entirely confined to her bed, and had periodical discharges of blood
+from the lungs, which were chiefly thrown out by the nostrils. During a
+few intervals of relaxation she was prevailed upon with great difficulty
+to put a few crumbs of bread comminuted in the hand, into her mouth,
+together with a little water sucked from her one hand, and, in one or
+two instances, a little gruel, but even in these attempts almost the
+whole was rejected. On two occasions also, after a total abstinence of
+many months, she made signs of wishing to drink some water, which was
+immediately procured for her. On the first trial the whole seemed to be
+returned from the mouth, but she was greatly refreshed in having it
+rubbed upon the throat. On the second occasion she drank off a pint at
+once, but could not be prevailed upon to drink any more, although her
+father had now fixed a wedge between her teeth. With these exceptions,
+however, she seemed to have passed upwards of four years without either
+liquids or solids of any kind, or even an appearance of swallowing; she
+lay for the most part like a log of wood, with a pulse scarcely
+perceptible for feebleness, but distinct and regular. Her countenance
+was clear and pretty fresh; her features neither disfigured nor sunk;
+her bosom round and prominent, and her limbs not emaciated. Dr. McKenzie
+watched her, with occasional visits, for eight or nine years, at the
+close of which period she seemed to be a little improved."
+
+This account, like that given of Miss Fancher, tells us nothing definite
+in regard to the fasting abilities of the young woman. It simply, with
+the other, may be accepted as indicating that hysterical women are able
+to go for comparatively long periods without food, and that fact we
+already knew. It will be observed that it is stated that she "_seemed_"
+to go four years without food or drink.
+
+In regard to Miss Fancher, the evidence is a little conflicting. First
+we have Dr. Speir reported as saying, in answer to a question as to her
+having lived fourteen years without food:
+
+"'Yes, she became my patient in 1864. Her case is a most remarkable
+one.'
+
+"'But has she eaten nothing during all these years?'
+
+"'I can safely say she has not.'"
+
+This in the _Herald_.
+
+But about a month afterward we find the following conversation, reported
+as taking place between the same physician and another reporter, this
+time of the _Sun_:
+
+"'Is it true that she has not partaken of food in all these thirteen
+years?'
+
+"'No, I cannot say that she has not; I have not been constantly with her
+for thirteen years. She may have taken food in my absence.'"
+
+In which opinion all physiologists will join.
+
+As I have said, hysterical women certainly do exhibit a marked ability
+to go without both food and drink. I have had patients abstain from
+sometimes one, sometimes the other, and sometimes both, for periods
+varying from one day to eleven, and this without much, if any,
+suffering, for as soon as the suffering came they did not hesitate to
+signify their desire to break their voluntary fasts. Real suffering is a
+condition which the hysterical woman avoids with the most assiduous
+care.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[14] Curiosities of Medical Experience. London, 1837, Vol. I., page 269,
+article, _Abstinence_.
+
+
+
+
+V.
+
+THE PHYSIOLOGY AND PATHOLOGY OF INANITION.
+
+
+The opinion that food and drink are necessary to life is so generally
+accepted by mankind, that few venture to dispute the dictum of Virchow
+relative to Louise Lateau, "Fraud or miracle." But although it is
+impossible so far as we know for individuals to continue to exist for
+months and years without the ingestion of nutriment into the system, it
+is undoubtedly true that under certain circumstances life can be
+prolonged for days and weeks without any food of any kind going into the
+organism.
+
+The body is a machine constructed for the purpose of working. The kinds
+of work which the body of a man or woman does are many. Every act of
+perception or sensation, is an act of work; so is every thought, every
+emotion, every volition. The action of the heart or lungs in the
+circulation and respiration, the evolution of the animal heat, the
+various functions of secretion and excretion, digestion, motion,
+speech, etc., are all so many kinds of work. Now as regards work, it is
+well known that for its due performance force is required, and it is
+equally well known that for the development of force, matter that can be
+metamorphosed is necessary. The engine may be perfect, the water may be
+in the boiler, but unless there be force in the form of heat there will
+be no steam; and there will be no heat unless there be fuel in a state
+of combustion.
+
+The human body differs from any other machine in the fact that it uses
+its fuel in great part indirectly; only in fact after it has been
+assimilated and converted into tissues of various kinds. Thus when a
+muscle contracts, it is the muscle itself which is consumed; when a
+thought is conceived it is the brain which provides the force; when an
+emotion is experienced, it is again the brain which is decomposed. The
+body, therefore, lives by the death of its own substance. It is true,
+some kinds of food such as alcohol, tea and coffee, and perhaps some
+others do not require to go farther than the blood to be burned, but
+these are mainly heat-producing, and not tissue-producing substances.
+But whether matter be consumed directly or indirectly, all bodily force
+results from its decomposition, and without this destruction of matter
+the body would be absolutely incapable of a single functional action of
+any kind whatever, and its temperature like that of the so-called
+cold-blooded animals would be that of the surrounding medium, the
+atmosphere.
+
+The quantity of food required by the system varies like the demands of
+other machines in accordance with the amount of work which is to be
+performed. A plowman, other things being equal, consumes more than a
+watchmaker; just as a locomotive burns more fuel than the little engine
+that runs a sewing machine; the strong able-bodied active man, one who
+works his brains and muscles up to their full power, eats more than the
+weak, emaciated and inactive girl, who passes all her time in the
+recumbent position in bed; and the latter will, other things being
+equal, endure for a longer period entire abstinence from food. A little
+food with such a one goes a great way, the demands of the system are at
+their minimum, and hence a mouthful of bread, or a little tea and toast
+taken at long intervals, suffices for the supply of all, or a great
+portion of the waste of the body. With such a person there is not much
+intense thought, there is little or no muscular action, the pulsations
+of the heart do not require to be of much force, the respiration is
+feeble, digestion is at its lowest point, there are no great demands for
+animal heat, and in fact if the temperature of the atmosphere of the
+room in which such a person lies, be kept high, the function of
+calorification may be almost nothing. Still there must be some food
+taken. The body, can to a certain extent, be used up in supplying the
+force required for the several functions without the necessity for an
+immediate restoration of its tissues, but there is a limit to this,
+beyond which it is certain death to go.
+
+Chossat[15] has determined this point very accurately by many
+experiments performed upon doves, pigeons, Guinea pigs, rabbits, etc. He
+found that as a mean result, death ensued when the body lost four-tenths
+of its original weight. For instance, a body weighing one hundred
+pounds, could endure the loss of forty pounds without death necessarily
+following. Five-tenths or one-half appeared to be the extreme loss of
+weight in inanition which the body could endure without death resulting.
+
+In addition to the loss of weight the temperature fell rapidly, the
+action of the heart was lessened, the number and depth of the
+respirations was diminished, and the excretions gradually became smaller
+in amount.
+
+Experiments such as those of Chossat on the lower animals, cannot of
+course be instituted on the human subject, nevertheless nature sometimes
+performs experiments for us which are not without valuable results; and
+accidents of various kinds, have also given us important data.
+
+On the 19th of March, 1755, twenty-two persons living in the Alpine
+village of Bergemoletto, in Piedmont, were buried in their houses by an
+avalanche or whirlwind of snow. The space covered was about 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 Foderé[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. Foderé 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 deprived of all
+food dies sooner than a healthy person. An insane person suffering from
+acute mania also resists inanition badly, but one the subject of
+melancholia often endures the total deprivation of aliment for a long
+time. Esquirol[20] cites the case of a melancholic who did not succumb
+till after eighteen days of complete abstinence, and Desbarreaux-Bernard
+another in which life was prolonged for sixty-one days, but in this case
+a little broth was taken once. Desportes[21] refers to the case of a
+woman subject to melancholia who continued to exist during two months of
+abstinence, during which she took nothing into the stomach but a little
+water.
+
+It would be easy to go on and quote other instances occurring among
+prisoners, shipwrecked persons, those suffering from diseases which
+prevented food entering the stomach, others lost in deserts, forests,
+etc., in which life has been prolonged for considerable periods. Such
+cases are, however, quite exceptional. An interesting instance occurring
+under one of these heads may, however, be cited as an example.
+
+M. Lépine[22] reports the case of a young girl nineteen years of age who
+swallowed a quantity of sulphuric acid. As a consequence a stricture of
+the œsophagus was produced. Three months after the act, liquids alone
+passed into the stomach; emaciation was extreme and the countenance
+pallid. Four months subsequently, that is, seven months after swallowing
+the acid, the obliteration of the œsophagus was complete, and nothing
+whatever could be swallowed. The patient lived for sixteen days after
+all food or drink was prevented reaching the stomach. During the last
+days of her starvation she complained only of thirst and not of hunger.
+The prostration was extreme and the temperature greatly lessened. A
+tendency to sleep was present, and there was a subdued delirium. On the
+last day of life there was more excitement; the conjunctivæ were red,
+the pulse thread-like, and the skin cold. It is not stated whether or
+not attempts were made to feed this patient by injections into the
+rectum of nutritious substances, or by the use of baths containing such
+matters in solution. It may, however, safely be taken for granted that
+efforts of these kinds were made, and if so, the unusually long period
+during which life was sustained is explained.
+
+In all the cases in which life was extraordinarily prolonged there was
+either not a total deprivation of food and drink, or there was a state
+of muscular inaction present particularly favorable to retardation of
+the destructive changes in the body which abstinence produces. It may be
+asserted that in ordinary cases absolute deprivation of food and drink
+cannot be endured by a healthy adult longer than ten days, and death
+generally ensues before the end of the eighth day. It is said that women
+sustain abstinence better than men. Young persons and the aged certainly
+resist with less power than those of the middle period of life. Dante
+was aware of this fact when he made the children of Ugolino die before
+their father, the youngest first, the oldest last.
+
+Even though there be a total deprivation of what may strictly be called
+food, some of the cases already cited show that if water be taken life
+is preserved for a much longer period than would otherwise be the case.
+Thus a negro woman, according to Dr. J. W. Francis,[23] believing
+herself to be bewitched, abstained from food for three weeks, but during
+this period took two small cups of water, to which a very little wine
+had been added.
+
+In a case reported by Dr. McNaughton[24] a longer resistance was
+maintained.
+
+"The subject of this case was a young man, aged twenty-seven, who for
+three years immediately preceding his death almost constantly kept his
+room, apparently engaged in meditation, a Bible his only companion. At
+the latter end of May, 1829, his appetite began to fail; he ate very
+little, and on the 2d of July he declined eating altogether. For the
+first six weeks of his fast he went regularly to the well, washed
+himself, and took a bowl full of water with him into the house. With
+this he occasionally washed his mouth and drank a little; the quantity
+taken during the twenty-four hours did not exceed a pint. On one
+occasion he went three days without taking water, but on the fourth
+morning he was observed to go to the well and drink copiously and
+greedily. For the first six weeks he walked out every day, and sometimes
+spent the greater part of the day in the woods. He retained his strength
+until a short time before his death. During the first three weeks he
+emaciated rapidly; afterwards he did not seem to waste so sensibly.
+Prof. Willoughby visited him a few days before he died. He found the
+skin very cold, the respiration feeble and slow, but otherwise natural;
+but the effluvia from the breath, and perhaps the skin, were extremely
+offensive. During the greater part of the latter week of his life the
+parents say there was a considerable discharge of foul reddish matter
+from the lungs. To this perhaps the offensive smell referred to may be
+chiefly attributed. The pulse was regular, but slow and feeble, and the
+arteries extremely contracted. The radial artery, for example, could be
+distinctly felt like a small, hard thread, communicating almost a wiry
+feel.
+
+"The alvine evacuations were rare; it is believed that he passed several
+weeks without any, but the secretion of urine seemed more regular. He
+died after fasting fifty-three days. On dissection the stomach was found
+loose and flabby. The gall bladder was distended with a dark,
+muddy-looking bile. The mesentery, stomach and intestines were
+excessively thin and transparent. There was no fat in the omentum."
+
+In cases of complete abstinence, the phenomena--to several of which
+attention has already been called--are very striking. The respiration
+becomes slow until just before death, when, as Chossat observes, there
+is often a quickening of the respiratory movements. The exhaled breath
+has a peculiarly sickening and fetid odor. The pulse loses in force and
+frequency.
+
+The blood becomes reduced in quantity to such an extent sometimes that,
+as observed by Collard and Martigny,[25] incisions may be made in
+various parts of the bodies of animals suffering from inanition without
+there being any hæmorrhage.
+
+The animal temperature falls, according to Chossat, 8° per day until the
+day of death, when it reaches 14°; and at the moment life departs, the
+loss suddenly becomes 30°.
+
+All the secretions are diminished in quantity. This is especially shown
+as regards the saliva and urine. Even open sores cease to secrete pus.
+
+At first there is pain, the seat of which is referred to the stomach,
+and which pain in the beginning, being simply a feeling of emptiness,
+rapidly assumes a gnawing or tearing character. But before long this
+fades away and it does not appear that in the middle and final stages of
+inanition there is any suffering which can be called a pain, or which
+can be fixed in any definite part of the body.
+
+The mental faculties are profoundly affected. A high state of delirium
+supervenes, and there are often hallucinations. These sometimes relate
+to food, which appears to the sufferer to be spread out before him in
+the most seducing manner. All nobility of character disappears, and
+selfishness and brutality govern. Finally the delirium becomes low and
+muttering, the bodily weakness becomes excessive, walking, or even
+standing, is impossible, the sufferer loses all sensation, and death
+ensues.
+
+But probably no part of the subject is of more interest than that which
+relates to the association of inanition with hysteria. As is well known
+by physicians, the existence of this latter condition enables many to
+bear partial, or even complete deprivation of food longer and with less
+apparent suffering than would be possible with individuals in good
+health.
+
+That Miss Fancher is subject to hysteria is very evident from a
+consideration of the clinical history of her case, and hence it is to
+be expected that she can endure long fasts without much inconvenience.
+It is just possible that she might, by remaining quietly in bed in a
+state of partial or complete trance--a hysterical condition in which the
+waste of the tissues is greatly reduced--exist for a month without
+either food or drink, and therefore the proposition which I made to her
+friends contains no exacting condition. But when it is gravely said that
+"for a period of nearly fourteen years she has lived absolutely without
+food or nourishment of any kind," we are forced to declare, in the
+interest of science, that the statement is necessarily absolutely devoid
+of truth. Subsequent statements, as we have seen, modify this fourteen
+years' claim very materially, and really leave it in doubt whether there
+was any abstinence at all.
+
+But I think it may safely be believed that Miss Fancher has indulged in
+frequent long fasts. Hysteria is very frequently marked, not only by the
+ability to endure lengthened periods of abstinence, but by the abolition
+of all desire for food, to such an extent that the sight or even idea of
+aliment of any kind excites loathing and disgust. M. Lasègue,[26] in a
+very interesting memoir, has discussed this part of the subject with
+great precision, and has shown that though such patients take very
+little food they do take some, and that eventually they experience all
+the symptoms of inanition. He has never seen death result from the
+abstinence, for as soon as the condition becomes decidedly unpleasant
+the patient resumes gradually her normal alimentation.
+
+In a case recently under my care, a young lady twenty-three years of
+age became hysterical in consequence of domestic troubles, and losing
+all desire for food, took nothing daily but a single cup of chocolate.
+She persevered in this restricted diet for twenty-nine days, although
+during the last eight or ten she gave decided evidences of starvation.
+She became emaciated, her temperature fell, especially in the
+extremities, her breath was offensive, her menstruation ceased, and
+there was such a marked sense of discomfort that she began to crave
+food, not, as she said, because her appetite had returned, but because
+she was afraid she would die. Still she resisted till, on the thirtieth
+day, she begged for a little beef tea, and from that moment her appetite
+returned to her, and by the end of another week, she was eating her
+ordinary quantity and variety of food.
+
+Now, in this case, though the amount of nutriment taken daily was small,
+it was of such a character as to be well able to sustain life. The half
+pint of chocolate contained milk and sugar, besides the highly
+nutritious chocolate, with its carbonaceous and nitrogenous matters, and
+yet a month was the extreme limit of endurance.
+
+That a state of inanition exists in Miss Fancher is not to be doubted.
+The extreme emaciation, the reduced bodily temperature, the contracted
+stomach and intestines, the great bodily weakness, all show that she is
+not sufficiently nourished. In her case there is apparently not only an
+absence of appetite but a positive disgust for food; and another symptom
+often present in inanition--vomiting when nutriment is taken into the
+stomach--appears also to be a prominent feature. It is probable that
+there is likewise a notable diminution in the amount of urine excreted,
+as this is a common accompaniment of hysterical manifestations such as
+hers. In some instances the function appears to be almost entirely
+arrested, as was the fact in a case described by M. Charcot,[27] and in
+two which have come under my own observation.
+
+There is nothing remarkable in the admitted fact that Miss Fancher eats
+very little. We have seen how existence can be kept up on greatly
+reduced quantities of food, and under circumstances such as those
+governing her case, for periods which would be impossible in healthy
+persons. No one yet under any conditions, whether of hysteria or trance
+or assumed miraculous interference, has, to the satisfaction of
+competent and disinterested investigators, lived even two months without
+the ingestion of any food whatever. As to going nearly fourteen years in
+a state of abstinence--a statement in her behalf which many persons
+believe to be true--I can only say that all the teachings of science and
+of experience are against the claim. No one who had the most superficial
+idea of what knowledge is and how facts can be proven, would for a
+moment accept such a preposterous story, no matter by whom asserted.
+
+The whole subject is one which is to be examined into and determined
+like any other matter, and yet, when a proposition is made to
+investigate by skilled observers the remarkable claim put forward, it is
+met with abuse and misrepresentation, as if these people thought that
+all they had to do was to make an assertion of a phenomenon which,
+according to what we know of nature, is absurd and impossible, to have
+it at once accepted by those who know, by painful experience, how
+doubtful all things are till they are proven, and how difficult it is
+to get satisfactory evidence of the most simple event in physiology or
+pathology. No one doubts the abstract possibility of a human being
+living without food, for, bearing in mind the discoveries that are
+constantly being made, nothing can be regarded as absolutely impossible
+outside the domain of mathematics. Two and two cannot make six, neither
+can two distinct bodies occupy the same space at the same time, nor the
+square of the hypothenuse be otherwise than equal to the sum of the
+squares of the other two sides of a right-angled triangle.
+
+Our knowledge of natural science is, however, founded on experience.
+Looking at a bear, for instance, for the first time, and with no
+knowledge of its habits and capacities we would not be apt to believe
+that the animal could go into retirement at the beginning of winter and
+remain till spring in a condition of semi-existence and without food.
+But experience teaches us that the bear when it begins to hibernate is
+fat; that during hibernation it is in a perfectly quiescent state; that
+when it emerges into active life again it is emaciated, and that during
+the whole period of retirement it has taken nothing into its stomach. We
+then know by observing that all bears go through the same process, that
+it is a law of their organism to do so, and that their reduced
+functional actions are maintained by the consumption of the fat with
+which in the beginning their bodies were loaded. Even here, then, there
+is no exception to the law that there is no force without the
+decomposition of matter. Now, it is just possible that by some hitherto
+unknown or unrecognized condition of the system a man or woman may
+obtain the force necessary to carry on life for fourteen years without
+getting it through food taken into the stomach. But a possibility and a
+fact are two very different things, and the admitted possibility has not
+yet been shown to be a fact. It is easier--to use the argument of
+Hume--for the mind to accept the view that there is deception or error
+somewhere, than to believe that a woman, contrary to all human
+experience, should live fourteen years without food. Turtles, we know,
+will live for months while entirely deprived of nutriment. Many others
+of the cold-blooded animals will do the same thing. It is their nature
+to do so, and we have experience of the fact, but it is not the nature
+of women, so far as we know, and therefore we refuse to accept as true
+the stories which are told of their powers in this direction. And our
+knowledge is based not only on our daily experience of the wants of
+their systems and the examples of starvation which have come to our
+knowledge, but also upon the fact that in the many cases of alleged long
+abstinence from food that have been investigated, error or deception has
+been discovered. Therefore, when it is said that Miss Fancher lives
+without food, and has so done for fourteen years, we simply say, "give
+us the proofs." Of course the proofs are not given.
+
+How far Miss Fancher is responsible for the assertions that have been
+made in regard to her long-continued abstinence I do not know. A
+tendency to deception is a notable phenomenon of hysteria, and if she
+has led those about her to accept the view that she has existed without
+food for years, the circumstance would be in no way remarkable. Other
+hysterical women have deceived in the same or in still more astonishing
+ways. Or it may be that the amount of food taken being very small,
+carelessness or want of exactness has led to the expression that she
+lived upon "absolutely nothing," just as we hear the words used every
+day by those who have little or no appetite, but who nevertheless do eat
+something. Again, a love for the marvellous is so deeply rooted in the
+average human mind that it willingly, and to a certain extent
+unconsciously, adds to any statement of a remarkable circumstance, till
+the latter grows, whilst being repeated, to fabulous dimensions.
+
+But however this may be, whatever the explanation, it is quite certain
+that if Miss Fancher has lived fourteen years without food, or even
+fourteen months, or weeks, she is a unique psychological or pathological
+individual, whose case is worthy of all the consideration which can be
+given to it, not by superstitious or credulous or ignorant persons, but
+by those who, trained in the proper methods of scientific research,
+would know how to get the whole truth of her case, and nothing but the
+truth. It is to be regretted, therefore, that the proposition contained
+in the annexed letter (Appendix) was not accepted, and that we are
+forced to place Miss Fancher's case among the others which have proved
+to be fallacious, till such time as it may suit her and her friends to
+allow of such an examination.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[15] Recherches expérimentales sur l'inanition. Paris, 1843, p. 20.
+
+[16] Universal Magazine, Vol. XXXVI, p. 250.
+
+[17] Abridged Philosophical Transaction, Vol. III, p. 111.
+
+[18] Traité de médecine légale et d'hygiène publique. Paris, 1813. t.
+II, p. 285.
+
+[19] Medical Gazette, Vol. XVII, p. 389.
+
+[20] Des maladies mentales. Paris, 1838, p. 203.
+
+[21] Du refus de manger chez les aliénés. Thèse de Paris 1864, p.
+
+[22] Nouveau dictionnaire de médecine et de chirurgie pratiques. Paris,
+1874. t. XVIII., Art. Inanition, p. 503.
+
+[23] New York Medical and Surgical Journal, Vol. II, p. 31.
+
+[24] Quoted from Trans. of the Albany Institute by Dr. Lee in Copland's
+Dictionary of Medicine. Vol. I, p. 31.
+
+[25] Recherches expérimentales sur les effets de l'abstinence. _Journal
+de Physiologie_ de Magendie, t. VIII, p. 150.
+
+[26] De l'anorexie hystérique. _Archives générales de médecine_, April
+1875.
+
+[27] Leçons sur les maladies du système nerveux, t. I., 2d edition.
+Paris, 1876, p. 178.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX.
+
+
+The following letter embraces the proposition made to Miss Fancher, to
+which allusion is made in the text:
+
+    TO THE EDITOR OF THE HERALD:--
+
+    I have read the letter of Professor Henry M. Parkhurst, published in
+    a recent issue of the HERALD, relative to the "mind reading" or
+    clairvoyance of Miss Mollie Fancher, of Brooklyn, and it does not
+    satisfy me that the young lady in question possesses any such power.
+    It would have been very easy for her to have opened the envelope
+    without disturbing the seal and to have read the contents. Now,
+    there has been a great deal of talk about Miss Fancher's case. I
+    have received just fifty-seven letters asking me to investigate it,
+    and the press has reiterated the invitation over and over again. I
+    have stated very explicitly that I regard the whole matter as a
+    humbug of the most decided kind, but I have never asserted the
+    impossibility of the young lady's alleged performances. On the
+    contrary, I hold nothing to be absolutely impossible outside the
+    domain of mathematics. But possibilities and realities are very
+    different things, and I certainly will not accept as true any such
+    phenomena as those asserted to have been associated with Miss
+    Fancher unless they are proven.
+
+    I have already declared my readiness to investigate Miss Fancher,
+    and, a few days since, in the _Sun_, proposed a test which will be
+    perfectly satisfactory to me and many others who, at present, are in
+    accordance with me in my estimation of this young lady. Permit me
+    now to state it definitely, specifically, and once for all. I will
+    place a certified check for a sum of money exceeding $1,000 inside
+    of a single paper envelope. I will lay the package on a table in the
+    room in which she is. If she chooses she may take it in her hands
+    and place it in contact with any part of her body. I will allow her
+    half an hour to describe the check. If she reads it--number, date,
+    on whom drawn, amount, signature, etc.--accurately, she may have the
+    check as her own property, or I will give the amount expressed in
+    the check, in her name to any charitable institution she may
+    designate, or otherwise dispose of it in accordance with her
+    wishes.
+
+    The only conditions I exact are these:--
+
+    _First_--That the experiment be conducted in my presence and in that
+    of two other physicians, members of the New York Neurological
+    Society, whom I will bring with me as witness simply, and who will
+    not interfere in any way with the test.
+
+    _Second_--That the envelope shall at no time pass out of our sight.
+
+    If Miss Fancher succeeds in this test I will admit that heretofore
+    in my denunciations of such performances as hers I have been in
+    error, and that there is a force in nature which ought to be
+    investigated. I will pay the money not only without chagrin, but
+    with great satisfaction, and will consider that I have received full
+    value.
+
+    If she fails, as I am quite sure she will, I shall not hesitate to
+    continue to denounce her as an imposition in this as well as in her
+    assumed abstinence from food.
+
+    A word further in regard to this last matter. I know something about
+    "fasting girls" and their frauds, not excepting the sad case of poor
+    little Sarah Jacob. But I will make this additional proposition:--If
+    Miss Fancher will allow herself to be watched, day and night, for
+    one month, by relays of members of the New York Neurological
+    Society, I will give her $1,000 if at the end of that month she has
+    not in the meantime taken food voluntarily or as a forced measure to
+    save her from dying of starvation, the danger of this last
+    contingency to be judged of by her family physician, Dr. Speir.
+    These offers to remain open for acceptance till twelve o'clock M.,
+    December 31st. If not taken up by that time, let us hear no more in
+    support of Miss Fancher's mind reading or clairvoyance, or living
+    for a dozen or more years without food.
+
+                                              WILLIAM A. HAMMOND, M.D.
+
+    _43 West Fifty-Fourth Street, New York, Dec. 12th, 1878._
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note:
+
+    Hyphenation and punctuation have been standardised. Variant
+    spellings have been retained. Minor typographical errors have been
+    corrected without note, whilst significant amendments have been
+    listed below:
+
+      p. 3, 'Nicholas' amended to _Nicolas_
+      p. 5, 'Aquaintoin' amended to _Aquitaine_
+      p. 5, 'predominent' amended to _predominant_
+      p. 6, 'Geraldus Bucoldianus' amended to _Gerardus Bucoldianus_
+      p. 7, 'fœces' amended to _fæces_
+      p. 7, 'developes' amended to _develops_
+      p. 7, fn. 4, 'Παςατηςήσεων' amended to _Παρατηρήσεων_
+      p. 7, fn. 4, added _rararum_: 'medicarum, _rararum_, novarum'
+      p. 7, fn. 4, 'monstrasarum' amended to _monstrosarum_
+      p. 8, '1567' amended to _1597_
+      p. 9, fn. 7, 'chirurgicæ' amended to _chirurgicarum_
+      p. 15, 'Anne Jones' amended to _Ann Jones_
+      p. 16, 'fœcal' amended to _fæcal_
+      p. 26, 'fœces' amended to _fæces_
+      p. 31, 'Cardinal Carrafa' amended to _Cardinal Carafa_
+      p. 40, 'Farenheit' amended to _Fahrenheit_
+      p. 41, fn. 13, 'Rapport Médicale' amended to _Rapport Médical_
+      p. 41, fn. 13, added _de_: 'médecine _de_ Belgique'
+      p. 44, 'ecstacy' amended to _ecstasy_
+      p. 44, added _of_: 'direction _of_ M. le Curé'
+      p. 46, 'fecal' amended to _fæcal_
+      p. 47, 'stigmatisations' amended to _stigmatizations_
+      p. 48, 'fortell' amended to _foretell_
+      p. 48, 'marvelous' amended to _marvellous_
+      p. 58, 'is' amended to _it_: 'that _it_ is stated'
+      p. 58, 'Dr. Spier' amended to _Dr. Speir_
+      p. 60, 'assimulated' amended to _assimilated_
+      p. 60, 'alchohol' amended to _alcohol_
+      p. 62, 'Bergemolletta' amended to _Bergemoletto_
+      p. 62, 'breath' amended to _breadth_
+      p. 62, 'Belguim' amended to _Belgium_
+      p. 63, fn. 18, 'médicine' amended to _médecine_
+      p. 64, 'palid' amended to _pallid_
+      p. 64, fn. 22, 'Nouvreau' amended to _Nouveau_
+      p. 64, fn. 22, 'médicine' amended to _médecine_
+      p. 67, 'messentery' amended to _mesentery_
+      p. 67, 'their' amended to _there_
+      p. 67, 'hemorrhage' amended to _hæmorrhage_
+      p. 68, 'Chosset' amended to _Chossat_
+      p. 69, fn. 26, 'médicine' amended to _médecine_
+      p. 71, 'her's' amended to _hers_
+      p. 71, 'injestion' amended to _ingestion_
+      p. 76, 'Sarah Jacobs' amended to _Sarah Jacob_
+      p. 76, 'Dr. Spier' amended to _Dr. Speir_
+
+    The page reference in fn. 21 (p. 64) was omitted in the original text.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Fasting Girls, by William Alexander Hammond
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diff --git a/25601-0.zip b/25601-0.zip
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Fasting Girls, by William Alexander Hammond
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Fasting Girls
+       Their Physiology and Pathology
+
+Author: William Alexander Hammond
+
+Release Date: May 26, 2008 [EBook #25601]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FASTING GIRLS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Bryan Ness, Stephen Blundell and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This
+book was produced from scanned images of public domain
+material from the Google Print project.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                            BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
+
+
+    CEREBRAL HYPER�MIA: THE RESULT OF MENTAL STRAIN
+      OR EMOTIONAL DISTURBANCES. 16mo, cloth ... $1 00
+
+    "Under the disguise of these hard words, Dr. Hammond presents a
+    variety of admirable counsels, with regard to an excess of blood in
+    the head, pointing out its causes, its symptoms, the mode of its
+    medical treatment, and the means of its prevention."--_N. Y. Tribune._
+
+    "The work is not only of interest to the medical man, but also is
+    one easily understood and to be read with profit by brain-workers of
+    all classes, whether in profession, in literature or business. It
+    treats of the cause of headaches, the wakefulness, the illusions or
+    delusions, and feelings of tightness in the head, which so many of
+    our American writers and thinkers experience, and it gives valuable
+    information available by laymen as to the prevention and remedy for
+    this affection, which later on leads to insanity or death."--_Boston
+    Traveller._
+
+                              G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK.
+
+
+
+
+                       FASTING GIRLS;
+
+               THEIR PHYSIOLOGY AND PATHOLOGY
+
+
+                             BY
+
+                  WILLIAM A. HAMMOND, M.D.
+
+ PROFESSOR OF DISEASES OF THE MIND AND NERVOUS SYSTEM IN THE
+     MEDICAL DEPARTMENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF THE CITY OF
+      NEW YORK, AND IN THE UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT. ETC.
+
+
+           "There is no new thing under the Sun."
+                                         --_Eccl._ I, 9.
+
+        "Nil spernat auris, nec tamen credat statim."
+                                               --PH�DRUS.
+
+
+                          NEW YORK
+                     G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
+                      182 FIFTH AVENUE
+                            1879
+
+
+
+
+     COPYRIGHT BY
+ G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS.
+        1879.
+
+
+Transcriber's Note:
+
+    Greek text has been transliterated and is shown between {braces}.
+    The oe ligature is shown as [oe].
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+In issuing this little book I have been actuated by a desire to do
+something towards the removal of a lamentable degree of popular
+ignorance.
+
+It seems that no proposition that can be made is so absurd or impossible
+but that many people, ordinarily regarded as intelligent, will be found
+to accept it and to aid in its propagation. And hence, when it is
+asserted that a young lady has lived for fourteen years without food of
+any kind, hundreds and thousands of persons throughout the length and
+breadth of a civilized land at once yield their belief to the monstrous
+declaration.
+
+I have confined my remarks entirely to the question of abstinence from
+food. The other supernatural gifts, the possession of which is claimed,
+would, if considered, have extended the limits of this little volume
+beyond the bounds which were deemed expedient. At some future time I may
+be tempted to discuss them. In the meantime it is well to call to mind
+that a proposition (_see_ Appendix) which I made solely in the interest
+of truth was disregarded, ostensibly with the desire to avoid publicity,
+when in fact the daily press had for weeks been filled with reports in
+detail, furnished by the friends of the young lady in question, of the
+marvellous powers she was said to possess.
+
+A portion of this essay, which bore upon the matter discussed, has been
+taken from another volume by the author, published several years ago,
+and now out of print.
+
+                                                   WILLIAM A. HAMMOND.
+
+ 43 WEST 54TH STREET,
+  MARCH _1st, 1879_.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+                                                   PAGE
+
+   I  ABSTINENCE IN THE MIDDLE AGES                   1
+
+  II  ABSTINENCE IN MODERN TIMES                      6
+
+ III  ABSTINENCE FROM FOOD, WITH STIGMATIZATION      31
+
+  IV  THE BROOKLYN CASE                              48
+
+   V  THE PHYSIOLOGY AND PATHOLOGY OF INANITION      59
+
+
+
+
+FASTING GIRLS.
+
+
+
+
+I.
+
+ABSTINENCE IN THE MIDDLE AGES.
+
+
+Among the many remarkable manifestations by which hysteria exhibits
+itself, for the astonishment of the credulous and uneducated portion of
+the public, and--alas, that it should have to be said,--for the
+delectation of an occasional weak-minded and ignorant physician, the
+assumption of the ability to live without food may be assigned a
+prominent place. I am not aware that this power has been claimed in its
+fullest development for the male of the human species. When he is
+deprived of food he dies in a few days, more or less, according to his
+physical condition as regards adipose tissue and strength of
+constitution; but if a weak emaciated girl asserts that she is able to
+exist for years without eating, there are at once certificates and
+letters from clergymen, professors, and even physicians, in support of
+the truth of her story. The element of impossibility goes for nothing
+against the bare word of such a woman, and her statements are accepted
+with a degree of confidence which is lamentable to witness in this era
+of the world's progress.
+
+The class of deceptions occasionally induced by hysteria, and embracing
+these "fasting girls," has been known for many years, though it is only
+in comparatively recent times that the instances have been taken at
+their proper value. G�rres[1] gives a number of examples occurring among
+male and female saints and other holy persons, in which partial or total
+abstinence from food was said to have existed for long periods.
+
+Thus Liduine of Schiedam fell ill in 1395, and remained in that state
+till her death, thirty-three years subsequently. During the first
+nineteen years she ate every day nothing but a little piece of apple the
+size of a holy wafer, and drank a little water and a swallow of beer, or
+sometimes a little sweet milk. Subsequently, being unable to digest beer
+and milk, she restricted herself to a little wine and water, and still
+later she was obliged to confine herself to water alone, which served
+her both as food and drink. But after nineteen years she took nothing
+whatever, according to her own statement made to some friars in 1422,
+she averring that for eight years nothing in the way of nourishment had
+passed her lips, and that for twenty years she had seen neither the sun
+nor the moon, nor had touched the earth with her feet.
+
+Saint Joseph of Copertino remained for five years without eating bread,
+and ten years without drinking wine, contenting himself with dried
+fruits, which he mixed with various bitter herbs. The herb which he used
+for Fridays had such an atrocious taste, that one of the brethren, by
+simply putting his tongue to it, was seized with vomiting, and for
+several days thereafter everything he ate excited nausea. He fasted for
+forty days seven times every year, and during these periods ate nothing
+at all except on Sundays and Thursdays.
+
+Nicolas of Flue, as soon as he embraced the monastic life, subsisted
+altogether on the holy eucharist. The pious G�rres in explanation of
+this miracle says:
+
+"In ordinary nourishment he who eats being superior to that which is
+eaten, assimilates the aliments which he takes, and communicates to them
+his own nature. But in the eucharist the aliment is more powerful than
+he who eats. It is no longer therefore the nourishment which is
+assimilated, but on the contrary, it assimilates the man, and introduces
+him into a superior sphere. An entire change is produced. The
+supernatural life in some way or other absorbs the natural life, and the
+man instead of living on earth, lives henceforth by grace and by
+heaven."
+
+This is about on a par, as regards lucidity and logic, with the
+explanations which we are given of the alleged case of prolonged fasting
+in Brooklyn.
+
+Doubts arose in regard to Nicolas, and the bishop had him watched, but
+without detecting him in fraud. Finally he ordered him to eat a piece of
+bread in his presence. Nicolas did as he was commanded, but at the first
+mouthful he was seized with violent vomiting. The bishop inquired of him
+how he thus managed to live without eating, to which the brother
+answered that when he assisted at mass, and when he took the holy
+eucharist, he felt a degree of strength and suppleness like that derived
+from the most nutritious food.
+
+Still the doubters continued, and the inhabitants of Underwold, where
+Nicolas lived, appear to have been at first very much inclined to
+suspect him of deceit. But they were finally converted, for having
+during a whole month guarded every approach to his cabin, and having
+during that time detected no one in taking food to him, they were
+convinced that for that time at least he had lived without food. The
+sceptical reasoner of the present day would probably regard the test as
+insufficient.
+
+In 1225, Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln, having heard that there was at
+Leicester a nun who had taken no nourishment for seven years, and who
+lived only on the eucharist, which she took every Sunday, gave at first
+no faith to the story. He sent to her, however, fifteen clerks, with
+directions to watch her assiduously for fifteen days, never for an
+instant losing sight of her. The clerks reported to him that they had
+strictly obeyed his commands; that she had taken no nourishment, and
+that yet she nevertheless preserved her full strength and health.
+Whereupon the Bishop declared himself convinced, "as," adds G�rres, "it
+was proper for a sensible man to do."
+
+Among others of the holy persons who acquired the power of living on the
+sacramental bread, may be mentioned St. Catharine of Sienna, Saint Rose
+of Lima, Saint Collete, Saint Peter of Alcantara, and many others.
+
+But if saints and other holy people were able, through miraculous power,
+to live without food, the same ability was claimed for those who were
+under the influence of demons and devils. G�rres[2] states that a person
+possessed by a devil often loses all taste for food of any kind, and can
+retain no nourishment in his body. Another symptom is a disgust which
+is formed for the companionship of other persons. Thus a man was
+tormented by a demon, who forced him to fly into the forests, where he
+hid himself from mankind. One night he quit his house, and concealed
+himself in a cavern, remaining there entirely without food for sixteen
+days. Again he remained in the woods twenty-four days, neither eating
+nor drinking during this period. Finally his children found him, and
+taking him to a priest, had the devil exorcised, and he was cured.
+
+Saint Prosper, of Aquitaine, speaks of a young girl possessed by a
+devil, and who went seventy days without eating. Notwithstanding this
+long fast, she did not become emaciated, because every night at twelve
+o'clock a bird sent by the devil took a mysterious nourishment to her.
+
+An astonishing feature in the cases of the diabolical abstaining from
+food, is that, as in the holy instances, they exhibit various
+manifestations of hysteria. G�rres, with a charming degree of
+simplicity, details these symptoms and failing, under the influence of
+the predominant idea which fills him, to recognize their real character,
+ascribes them without hesitation to devilish agency. Thus he says:
+
+"The functions of the organs of nutrition are sometimes profoundly
+altered in the possessed, and these alterations are manifested by
+violent cramps, which show the extent to which the muscular system is
+affected. The hysterical lump in the throat is a frequent phenomenon in
+possession. A young girl in the Valley of Calepino had all her limbs
+twisted and contracted, and had in the [oe]sophagus a sensation as if a
+ball was sometimes rising in her throat, and again falling to her
+stomach. Her countenance was of an ashen hue, and she had a constant
+sense of weight and pain in the head. All the remedies of physicians had
+failed, and as evidences of possession were discovered in her, she was
+brought to Brignoli (a priest) who had recourse to supernatural means,
+and cured her."
+
+Strange to say, the ability to live on the eucharist, and to resist
+starvation by diabolical power, died out with the middle ages, and was
+replaced by the "fasting girls," who still continue to amuse us with
+their vagaries. To the consideration of some of the more striking
+instances of more recent times the attention of the reader is invited,
+in the confidence that much of interest in the study of the "History of
+Human Folly" will be adduced.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] La Mystique Divine, Naturelle et Diabolique. Paris, 1861. t. I., p.
+194, _et seq._
+
+[2] Op. cit. t. IV., p. 446.
+
+
+
+
+II.
+
+ABSTINENCE IN MODERN TIMES.
+
+
+Among the more striking cases under this head, is that of Margaret
+Weiss, a young girl ten years of age, who lived at Rode, a small village
+near Spires, and whose history has come down to us through various
+channels, but principally from Gerardus Bucoldianus,[3] who had the
+medical charge of her, and who wrote a little book describing his
+patient. Margaret is said to have abstained from all food and drink for
+three years, in the meantime growing, walking about, laughing, and
+talking like other children of her age. During the first year, however,
+she suffered greatly from pains in her head and abdomen, and, a common
+condition in hysteria--all four of her limbs were contracted. She passed
+neither urine nor f�ces. Margaret, though only ten years old--hysteria
+develops the secretive faculties--played her part so well that, after
+being watched by the priest of the parish and Dr. Bucoldianus, she was
+considered free from all juggling, and was sent home to her friends by
+order of the King, "not," the doctor adds, "without great admiration and
+princely gifts." Although fully accepting the fact of Margaret's
+abstinence, Dr. Bucoldianus appears to have been somewhat staggered, for
+he asks very pertinently: "Whence comes the animal heat, since she
+neither eats nor drinks, and why does the body grow when nothing goes
+into it?"
+
+Schenckius[4] quotes from Paulus Lentulus the "Wonderful History of the
+Fasting of Appolonia Schreira, a virgin in Berne." Lentulus states that
+he was with this maid on three occasions, and that, by order of the
+magistrate of Berne, she was taken to that city and a strict guard kept
+upon her. All kinds of means were set in operation to detect imposture
+if any existed, but none was discovered, and she was set at liberty as a
+genuine case of ability to live without food. In the first year of her
+fasting she scarcely slept, and in the second year never closed her eyes
+in sleep; and so she continued for a long while after.
+
+Schenckius also advances the case of Katharine Binder, of the
+Palatinate, who was closely watched by a clergyman, a statesman, and two
+doctors of medicine, without the detection of fraud on her part. She was
+said to have taken nothing but air into her system for nine years and
+more, as Lentulus reported on the authority of Fabricius. This
+last-named physician told Lentulus of another case, that of a girl
+fourteen years old, who certainly had taken neither food nor drink for
+at least three years.
+
+"But," says Dr. Hakewel,[5] "the strangest that I have met with of this
+kind, is the history of Eve Fliegen, out of Dutch translated into
+English, and printed at London, _anno_ 1611, who, being born at Meurs,
+is said to have taken no kind of sustenance for the space of fourteen
+years together; that is, from the year of her age, twenty-two to
+thirty-six, and from the year of our Lord 1597 to 1611; and this we have
+confirmed by the testimony of the magistrates of the town of Meurs, as
+also by the minister who made trial of her in his house thirteen days
+together by all the means he could devise, but could detect no
+imposture." Over the picture of this maid, set in front of the Dutch
+copy, stand these Latin verses:
+
+    "Meurs� h�c quam cernis decies ter, sexque peregit,
+    Annos, bis septem prorsus non viscitur annis
+    Nec potat, sic sola sedet, sic pallida vitam
+    Ducit, et exigui se oblectat floribus horti."
+
+Thus rendered in the English copy:
+
+    "This maid of Meurs thirty and six years spent,
+    Fourteen of which she took no nourishment;
+    Thus pale and wan she sits sad and alone,
+    A garden's all she loves to look upon."
+
+Franciscus Citesius,[6] physician to the King of France and to Cardinal
+Richelieu, devotes a good deal of space and attention to the case of
+Joan Balaam, a native of the city of Constance. She was well grown, but
+of bad manners. About the eleventh year of her age she was attacked with
+a fever, and among other symptoms vomited for twenty days. Then she
+became speechless and so continued for twenty-four days. Then she
+talked, but her speech was raving and incoherent. Finally she lost all
+power of motion and of sensibility in the parts below the head and could
+not swallow. From thenceforth she could not be persuaded to take food.
+Six months afterwards she regained the use of her limbs, but the
+inability to swallow remained and she acquired a great loathing for all
+kinds of meat and drink. The secretions and excretions appeared to be
+arrested. Nevertheless she was very industrious, employing her time in
+running errands, sweeping the house, spinning, and such like. This maid
+continued thus fasting for the space of nearly three years, and then by
+degrees took to eating and drinking again.
+
+Before coming to more recent cases, there is one other to which I desire
+to refer for the reason mainly that in it there was probably organic
+disease in addition to fraud and hysteria. It is cited by Fabricius[7]
+and by Wanley. _Anno Dom._, 1595, a maid of about thirteen years was
+brought out of the dukedom of Juliers to Cologne, and there in a broad
+street at the sign of the White Horse exposed to the sight of as many as
+desired to see her. The parents of this maid affirmed that she had lived
+without any kind of food or drink for the space of three whole years;
+and this they confirmed by the testimony of divers persons, such as are
+worthy of credit. Fabricius observed her with great care. She was of a
+sad and melancholy countenance; her whole body was sufficiently fleshy
+except only her belly, which was compressed so as that it seemed to
+cleave to her back-bone. Her liver and the rest of her bowels were
+perceived to be hard by laying the hand on the belly. As for excrements,
+she voided none; and did so far abhor all kinds of food, that when one,
+who came to see her privately, put a little sugar in her mouth she
+immediately swooned away. But what was most wonderful was, that this
+maid walked up and down, played with other girls, danced, and did all
+other things that were done by girls of her age; neither had she any
+difficulty of breathing, speaking or crying out. Her parents declared
+that she had been in this condition for three years.
+
+A great many more to the same effect might be adduced, but the foregoing
+are sufficient to indicate the fact that belief in the possibility of
+such occurrences was quite general, and that if doubt did exist in
+regard to their real nature, it was not so strong as not readily to be
+overcome by the tricks and devices of hysterical women.
+
+In the following instances of more modern date the reader will perceive
+the view which is taken of them by physicians of the present day, and
+will doubtless discover their real nature.
+
+About sixty-five years ago, a woman of Sudbury, in Staffordshire,
+England, named Ann Moore, declared that she did not eat, and a number of
+persons volunteered to watch her, in order to ascertain whether or not
+she was speaking the truth. The watch was continued for three weeks and
+then the watchers, as in other instances, reported that Ann Moore was a
+real case of abstinence from food of all kinds. The Bible was always
+kept open on Ann's bed. Her emaciation was so extreme that it was said
+her vertebral column could be felt through the abdominal walls. This sad
+condition was asserted to have been caused by her washing the linen of a
+person affected with ulcers. From that time she experienced a dislike
+for food, and even nausea at the sight or mention of it.
+
+As soon as the watchers reported in favor of the genuineness of Ann's
+pretensions her notoriety increased, and visitors came from all parts of
+the country, leaving donations to the extent of two hundred and fifty
+pounds in the course of two years. Doubts, however, again arose, and,
+bold from the immunity she had experienced from the first investigation,
+Ann in an evil moment, for the continuance of her fraud, consented to a
+second watching. This committee was composed of notable persons, among
+them being Sir Oswald Mosley, Bart., Rev. Legh Richmond, Dr. Fox, and
+his son, and many other gentlemen of the country. Two of them were
+always in her room night and day. At the suggestion of Mr. Francis Fox,
+the bedstead, bedding, and the woman in it were placed on a weighing
+machine, and thus it was ascertained that she regularly lost weight
+daily. At the expiration of the ninth day of this strict watching, Dr.
+Fox found her evidently sinking and told her she would soon die unless
+she took food. After a little prevarication, the woman signed a written
+confession that she was an impostor, and had "occasionally taken
+sustenance for the last six years." She also stated that during the
+first watch of three weeks her daughter had contrived, when washing her
+face, to feed her every morning, by using towels made very wet with
+gravy, milk, or strong arrowroot gruel, and had also conveyed food from
+mouth to mouth in kissing her, which it is presumed she did very
+often.[8]
+
+In a clinical lecture delivered at St. George's Hospital,[9] Dr. John W.
+Ogle calls attention to the simulation of fasting as a manifestation of
+hysteria, and relates the following amusing case:
+
+"A girl strongly hysterical, aged twenty, in spite of all persuasion and
+medical treatment, refused every kind of food, or if made to eat, soon
+vomited the contents of the stomach. On November 6th, 1869, whilst the
+girl was apparently suffering in the same manner, the Queen passed the
+hospital on her way to open Blackfriars Bridge. She arose in bed so as
+to look out of the window, although up to this time declaring that every
+movement of her body caused intense pain. On December 29, the following
+letter in the girl's handwriting, addressed to another patient in the
+same ward, was picked up from the floor: 'My Dear Mrs. Evens,--I was
+very sorry you should take the trouble of cutting me such a nice piece
+of bread and butter, yesterday. I would of taken it but all of them saw
+you send it, and then they would have made enough to have talked about.
+But I should be very glad if you would cut me a nice piece of crust and
+put it in a piece of paper and send it, or else bring it, so that they
+do not see it, for they all watch me very much, and I should like to be
+your friend and you to be mine. Mrs. Winslow, (the nurse) is going to
+chapel. I will make it up with you when I can go as far. Do not send it
+if you cannot spare it. Good bye, and God bless you.' Although she
+prevaricated about this letter, she appears to have gradually improved
+from this time on, and one day walked out of the hospital and left it
+altogether. She subsequently wrote a letter to the authorities
+expressing her regret at having gone on as she did."
+
+One of the most remarkable instances of the kind, is that of Sarah
+Jacob, known as the "Welsh Fasting Girl," and whose history and tragical
+death excited a great deal of comment in the medical and lay press in
+Great Britain a few years ago. The following account of the case is
+mainly derived from Dr. Fowler's[10] interesting work.
+
+Sarah Jacob was born May 12th, 1857. Her parents were farmers and were
+uneducated, simple-minded, and ignorant persons. In her earlier years
+she had been healthy, was intelligent, given to religious reading, and
+was said to have written poetry of her own composition. She was a very
+pretty child and was, according to the testimony of the vicar, the Rev.
+Evan Jones, a "good girl."
+
+About February 15th, 1867, when she was not quite ten years of age, she
+complained of pain in the pit of the stomach, and one morning on getting
+up, she told her mother that she had found her mouth full of bloody
+froth. The pain continued, and medical attendance was obtained. Soon
+afterwards she had strong convulsions of an epileptiform character and
+then other spasms of a clearly hysterical form, during which her body
+was bent in the form of a bow as in tetanus, the head and heels only
+touching the bed. Then the muscular spasm ceased and she fell at full
+length on the bed. For a whole month she continued in a state of
+unconsciousness, suffering from frequent repetitions of severe
+convulsive attacks, during which time she took little food. Mr. Davies,
+the surgeon, said in his evidence, that she was for a whole month, in a
+kind of permanent fit, lying on her back, with rigidity of all the
+muscles. For some time her life was despaired of, then her fits ceased
+to be convulsive and consisted of short periods of loss of consciousness
+with sudden awakings. For the next two or three months (till August,
+1867) she took daily, from six, gradually decreasing to four, teacupfuls
+of rice and milk, or oatmeal and milk, which according to her father's
+account, was cast up again immediately and blood and froth with it.
+During this time the bowels were only acted on once in six or nine days.
+"Up to this time," said her father, "she could move both arms and one
+leg, but the other leg was rigid."
+
+By the beginning of October, 1867, her quantity of daily food had, it
+was affirmed, dwindled down to nothing but a little apple about the size
+of a pill, which she took from a tea-spoon. At this time she made water
+about every other day; she looked very bad in the face, but was not
+thin. On the tenth day of October, it was solemnly declared that she
+ceased to take any food whatever, and so continued till the day of her
+death, December 17th, 1869, a period of two years, two months, and one
+week.
+
+"Of the veracity of the assertion in respect of _the one week_," says
+Dr. Fowler, "there is unfortunately plenty of evidence. To the absurdity
+of believing in the barest possibility of twenty-six months absolute
+abstinence, it is sufficient to reply that when to our knowledge, she
+was completely deprived of food, the girl died! The parents most
+persistently impressed upon every private as well as official visitor,
+both before and during the last fatal watching, that the girl did not
+take food; that she could not swallow; that whenever food was mentioned
+to her she became as it were, excited; that when it was offered to her
+she would have a fit, or the offer would make her ill. The sworn
+testimony of the vicar, the Rev. Wm. Thomas, Sister Clinch, Ann Jones,
+and the other nurses, is sufficiently confirmative on this point.
+Furthermore, the parents went so far as to expressly forbid the mere
+mention of food in the girl's presence."
+
+Towards the end of October, 1867, the case had attracted so much
+attention that the inhabitants in the neighborhood first began visiting
+the marvellous little girl.
+
+"In the beginning of November of the same year, the Rev. Evan Jones,
+B.D., the vicar of the parish, was sent for by the parents to visit
+Sarah Jacob. He was at once--by the mother--told of the girl's wonderful
+fasting powers; it was admitted she took water occasionally. He was also
+informed of the extraordinary perversion of her natural functions (the
+suppression of urine and f�cal evacuations.) He found her lying on her
+back in bed, which was covered with books. There was nothing then
+remarkable about her dress. The girl looked weak and delicate, though
+not pale, and answered only in monosyllables. 'The mother said her child
+was very anxious about the state of her soul, that it had such an effect
+upon her mind that she could not sleep.' I asked her myself if she had a
+desire to become a member of the Church of England? She said, 'Yes!' She
+continued to express that wish until July, 1869. At this time the
+reverend gentleman did not believe in the statements relative to the
+girl's abstinence. 'Every time,' he says, 'that I had a conversation
+with her up to the end of 1868, the parents both persisted that she
+lived without food, and continued their statements in January and
+February, 1869. I remonstrated with them and dwelt upon the apparent
+impossibility of the thing. They still persisted that it was a fact.'
+
+"Even as late as September, 1869, the vicar reiterated his ministerial
+remonstrances. When, in the beginning of the spring of 1869, he observed
+the fantastical changes the parents made in the girl's daily attire, he
+told them about the remarks made in the papers about this dressing and
+dwelt upon the impropriety of it. They replied, 'She had no other
+pleasure--they did not like denying it to her.' During the following
+summer, finding that the girl looked more plump in the face and that her
+general improvement was more conspicuous, he said, 'Sarah is evidently
+improving and gaining, and you say she takes no food; you are certainly
+imposing on the public.' I then dwelt on the sinfulness of continuing
+the fraud on the public. I said there were on record several cases of
+alleged fasting, some of which had been put to the test and had been
+discovered to be impositions; that those families would ever be held in
+execration by posterity, and such would be the case with them whenever
+this imposture was found out. The mother then assured me no imposition
+would be discovered in that house, because there was none."
+
+The father and mother both said that the Lord provided for her in a most
+natural way, and that it was a miracle. The father always talked about
+the "Doctor Mawr," meaning God Almighty; that she was supported by that
+"Big Doctor."
+
+Then soon began the custom of leaving money or other presents with the
+child, till at last every one who visited her, was expected to give
+something. Open house was kept and pilgrims came from near and far to
+see the wonderful girl who lived without food.
+
+When money was not forthcoming, presents of clothes, finery, books, or
+flowers, appear to have been substituted. Advantage was taken of these
+presents to bedeck the child in every variety of smartness. At one time
+she had a victorine about her neck and a wreath about her hair, then
+again, ornaments and a jacket on, and her hair neatly dressed with
+ribbons. At another time she had a silk shawl, a victorine around her
+neck, a small crucifix attached to a necklace, and little ribbons above
+the wrists. She had drab gloves on and her bed was nearly covered with
+books.
+
+Notwithstanding the alleged fasting, Sarah Jacob continued to improve in
+health.
+
+And now comes an astounding feature of this most remarkable case. The
+vicar became convinced that the instance was one of real abstinence. A
+little hysterical girl twelve years of age, by her perseverance in
+lying, had actually succeeded in inducing an educated gentleman to
+accept the truth of her statements! The following letter which was
+published on the 19th of February, 1869, speaks for itself:--
+
+                              "A STRANGE CASE.
+
+    "To the Editor of the _Welshman_.
+
+    "Sir: Allow me to invite the attention of your readers to a most
+    extraordinary case. Sarah Jacob, a little girl twelve years of age,
+    and daughter of Mr. Evan Jacob, Lletherneuadd, in this parish, has
+    not partaken of a single grain of any kind of food whatever, during
+    the last sixteen months. She did occasionally swallow a few drops of
+    water during the first few months of this period; but now she does
+    not even do that. She still looks pretty well in the face and
+    continues in the possession of all her mental faculties. She is in
+    this and several other respects, a wonderful little girl.
+
+    "Medical men persist in saying that the thing is quite impossible,
+    but all the nearest neighbors, who are thoroughly acquainted with
+    the circumstances of the case, entertain no doubt whatever of the
+    subject, and I am myself of the same opinion.
+
+    "Would it not be worth their while for medical men to make an
+    investigation into the nature of this strange case? Mr. Evan Jacob
+    would readily admit into his house any respectable person who might
+    be anxious to watch it and to see for himself.
+
+    "I may add, that Lletherneuadd is a farm-house about a mile from New
+    Inn, in this parish.
+
+                          "Yours faithfully,
+
+                                  "THE VICAR OF LLANFIHANGEL-AR-ARTH."
+
+The suggestions of the vicar relative to an investigation, were soon
+after afterwards acted upon by certain gentlemen of the neighborhood. A
+public meeting was called and a committee of watchers was appointed to
+be constantly in attendance in the room with Sarah Jacob, and to observe
+to the best of their ability, whether or not she took any food during
+the investigation. It was agreed that the watching was to continue for a
+fortnight.
+
+Prior to the beginning of this watching, no precautions were taken
+against food being conveyed into the room and concealed there. The
+parents actually debarred the watchers from touching the child's bed.
+The very first element of success was therefore denied, and no wonder
+that the whole affair was subsequently regarded as an absurdity. The
+watching consisted in two different men taking alternate watches from
+eight till eight. The watching to see whether the child partook of food,
+commenced on March 22d, and ended April 5th, 1869--a period of fourteen
+days.
+
+During the above fortnight, one of the watchers, in turn, was always
+close to her bed, and in her sight day and night, and at the time the
+bed was being made, which was generally every other morning, the four
+persons were always present and had every article thoroughly examined.
+The parents were allowed to go near the bed, as also was the little
+sister, six years old, who had been Sarah's constant companion and
+bed-fellow.
+
+On Wednesday, April 7th, 1869, a public meeting was held at the Eagle
+Inn, Llandyfeil, to hear the statements of the parents and of the
+several persons who had watched the child during the fourteen days. The
+parents briefly detailed the condition and symptoms of their daughter
+from the commencement of her illness. At no time during the whole
+fourteen days did the pulse ever reach above ninety per minute, although
+exceedingly changeable, as it always had been. The following evidence
+was received from the watchers, and it is _said_ that their statements
+were duly verified on oath before a magistrate:--
+
+Watcher No. 1 said: I, Evan Edward Smith, watched Sarah Jacob for two
+consecutive nights, (_i. e._, nights 22d and 23d of March) at the
+request of Mr. H. H. Davies, surgeon. The parents gave every facility to
+investigate the matter. I watched her with all possible care, and found
+nothing to suspect that food or drink was given her by foul means. I am
+quite sure she had nothing during my watch. I was dismissed on account
+of being suspected to doze on the second night.
+
+Watcher No. 2. This watcher watched Sarah Jacob for a whole fortnight,
+and found no indications that the child had anything to eat or drink. He
+was a college student, Daniel Harris Davies.
+
+Watcher No. 3. John Jones, a shopkeeper, gave similar evidence. He was a
+decided sceptic before he began watching, but after twelve days was
+thoroughly convinced of the fact that nothing in the shape of
+nourishment was given to the poor child. He watched every movement of
+all the inmates, and found nothing that would lead him to suspect that
+any nourishment was given to the little girl.
+
+Watcher No. 4. James Harris Davies, a medical student, spoke in like
+manner, and was perfectly positive that nothing had been given to her
+during the fortnight he had watched there, with the exception of three
+drops of water, once, to moisten her lips with. He was as great a
+sceptic as any one before he began watching, but as he saw nothing to
+confirm his suspicions, he could conscientiously say that nothing had
+been given her during his watch.
+
+Watcher No. 5. Evan Davies, of Powel Castle, who only watched her for
+one day, gave similar evidence, but as he was a neighbour he was
+dismissed for a stranger.
+
+Watcher No. 6. Herbert Jones, watched only one day, and spoke in a
+similar manner, and was dismissed on account of his credulity.
+
+Watcher No. 7. Thomas Davies, who had been the greatest sceptic of all,
+was strongly convinced. He watched Sarah Jacob twelve days, and was
+quite positive that nothing could have been given her during his watch.
+He watched her with all possible care, and was very cautious to be in a
+prominent place, where Sarah Jacob's mouth was always in sight.
+
+Evidence, however, was given which went to show that the watching was
+very imperfectly performed; that occasionally the watchers left before
+their time had expired; that intoxicating liquors were taken by them to
+the house, and that one of them was drunk while there. It was also shown
+that the father and mother had free access to the bed, while the
+watchers were absolutely prohibited from examining it. It is therefore
+with entire justification that Dr. Fowler states that the watching "was
+the greatest possible farce and mockery."
+
+After the report of the watchers the notoriety of Sarah Jacob of course
+became still greater; crowds came to visit her, and among others the
+Rev. Frederic Rowland Young went to see her, and made an unsuccessful
+effort to cure her by laying on of hands. When Dr. Fowler visited her,
+August 30th, 1869, on getting out at the nearest railway station, he was
+met by little boys bearing placards with the words "Fasting Girl," and
+"This is the shortest way to Llethernoryadd-ucha," on them. In his
+letter to the _Times_, giving an account of his visit, Dr. Fowler
+says:--
+
+"The first impression was most unfavorable, and to a medical man the
+appearances were most suspicious. The child was lying on a bed decorated
+as a bride, having around her head a wreath of flowers, from which was
+suspended a smart ribbon, the ends of which were joined by a small bunch
+of flowers, after the present fashion of ladies' bonnet strings. Before
+her, at proper reading distance, was an open Welsh book, supported by
+two other books on her body. The blanket covering was clean, tidy, and
+perfectly smooth. Across the fire-place, which was nearly opposite the
+foot of her bed, was an arrangement of shelves, well stocked with
+English and Welsh books, the gifts of various visitors to the house. The
+child is thirteen years of age, and is undoubtedly very pretty. Her face
+was plump, and her cheeks and lips of a beautiful rosy color. Her eyes
+were bright and sparkling, the pupils were very dilated, in a measure
+explicable by the fact of the child's head and face being shaded from
+the window-light by the projecting side of the cupboard bedstead. There
+was that restless movement and frequent looking out at the corners of
+the eyes so characteristic of simulative disease. Considering the
+lengthened inactivity of the girl, her muscular development was very
+good, and the amount of fat layer not inconsiderable. My friend stated
+that she looked even better than she did about a twelvemonth ago. There
+was a slight perspiration over the surface of the body. The pulse was
+perfectly natural, as were also the sounds of the lungs and heart, so
+far as I was enabled to make a stethoscopic examination. Having received
+permission to do this, I proceeded to make the necessary derangement of
+dress, when the girl went off into what the mother called a fainting
+fit. This consisted of nothing but a little and momentary hysterical
+crying and sobbing. The color never left the lips or cheeks. The pulse
+remained of the same power. Consciousness could have been but slightly
+diminished, inasmuch as on my then opening the eyelids I perceived a
+distinct upward and other movement of the eyeballs. Each percussion
+stroke of my examination, and even the pressure of the stethoscope,
+produced an expression of pain, which elicited a natural sympathy from
+the mother, and an assertion that a continuance of such examination
+would bring on further fits. On percussing the region of the stomach, I
+most distinctly perceived the sound of gurgling, which we know to be
+caused by the admixture of air and fluid in motion. The most positive
+assertion of the parents was subsequently made that saving a fortnightly
+moistening of her lips with cold water, the child had neither ate nor
+drank anything for the last twenty-three months. The whole region of the
+belly was tympanitic, and the muscular walls of this cavity were tense
+and drum-like--a condition not infrequently concomitant of a well-known
+class of nervous disorders. The child's intellectual faculties and
+special senses were perfectly healthy. Before her illness she was very
+much devoted to religious reading. This devotion has lately considerably
+increased. She is a member of the Church of England, and has been
+confirmed."
+
+Dr. Fowler then adds some other interesting particulars, all going to
+show the impossibility of the girl's being the subject of any exhausting
+disease, or of even having been continuously in bed, as her parents
+asserted, for nearly two years; and then says:--
+
+"The whole case is in fact one of simulative hysteria, in a young girl
+having the propensity to deceive very strongly developed. Therewith may
+be probably associated the power or habit of prolonged fasting. Both
+patient and mother admitted the occasional occurrence of the choking
+sensation called _globus hystericus_."
+
+This letter excited renewed discussion in the newspapers, and a second
+public meeting was called to make arrangements for a second watching. At
+this meeting it was decided to bring down from Guy's Hospital, London,
+several trained nurses, who were to conduct the watching; and the
+following resolutions were adopted, as expressing the terms under which
+the inquiry was to be conducted:--
+
+1. It would be advisable, before taking any steps in the matter, to
+obtain a written legal guarantee from the father of Sarah Jacob
+sanctioning the necessary proceedings. 2. That the duty of the nurses
+shall be to watch Sarah Jacob with a view to ascertain whether she
+partakes of any kind of food, and at the end of a fortnight to report
+upon the case before the local committee in Carmarthenshire, and, if
+required, at Guy's Hospital. 3. That two nurses shall be constantly
+awake and on the watch in the girl's room, night and day. 4. It would be
+advisable for the nearest medical practitioner to watch the progress of
+the case; and it will be absolutely necessary for him to _be prepared
+against any serious symptoms of exhaustion, supervening on the strict
+enforcement of the watching, and to act according to his judgment_. 5.
+That the room in which the girl sleeps shall be bared of all unnecessary
+furniture, and all possible places in the room for the concealment of
+food shall be closed and kept under the continual scrutiny of the
+watchers. 6. That if considered desirable by the local medical
+practitioner, or by the nurses, the bedstead on which the girl now lies
+shall be replaced by a single iron one. 7. That the bed on which the
+parents now sleep, in Sarah Jacob's room, shall be given up absolutely
+to the nurses. 8. That the parents be not allowed to sleep in the same
+room as the girl; that if they cannot at all times be prevented from
+approaching her, they should be previously searched (their pockets and
+other recesses of clothing as well as the interior of their mouths); and
+that no wetted towels or other such articles be allowed to be used about
+the girl by the parents, or any other person save the nurses; that the
+children of the family, and in fact every other person whatever (except
+the nurses), have similar restraints put upon them. 9. That the nurses
+have the sole management of preparing the room, bed, and patient, prior
+to the commencement of the watching. 10. That, as it is asserted the
+action of the bowels and bladder is entirely suspended, special
+attention must be directed to these organs.
+
+Four experienced women nurses were accordingly deputed from Guy's
+Hospital to take the entire charge of Sarah Jacob, and to watch her for
+fourteen days. They were instructed not to prevent her having food if
+she asked for it, but they were to see that she got none without their
+knowledge. On the 9th of December, 1869, at 4 P.M., the room was cleared
+of people and the watching began.
+
+In the first place it was ascertained that the girl had repeated
+evacuations of urine, and once, at least, of f�ces.
+
+Gradually evidences of mental and physical disturbance began to appear.
+The watch was so closely kept that no food or drink reached the child,
+and she did not ask for any.
+
+"At 10 P.M.," to quote the language of the journal kept by the sister
+nurse, "she was restless and threw her arms about. She was very cold,
+and the nurses put warm flannels on her. This was the last day on which
+she passed urine."
+
+Thursday, December 16, 3 A.M.--She was rolling from one side of the bed
+to the other. At half-past three she wished the bed made, and they made
+it. She was looking very pale and anxious. Her eyes were sunk and her
+nose pinched, and the cheek bones were prominent. Her arms and hands
+were cold, her feet and legs were the same. Ann Jones, one of the
+nurses, says in her memoranda, "She was very restless and appeared to me
+to be sinking. Her lips were very dry, and her mouth seemed parched."
+The peculiar smell (the starvation smell) about the bed was so strong as
+to make the sister nurse quite ill.
+
+At 11 A.M., the vicar saw her and told the parents that the child was
+gradually failing, and suggested to them the propriety of sending the
+nurses away and giving her a chance to obtain food, but they refused,
+saying that there was nothing to do but what the nurses were doing, and
+that they had seen her quite as weak before. The parents were urged by
+others to give up the fight by sending the nurses away, but they refused
+on the ground that want of food had nothing to do with the symptoms, and
+that she would not eat whether the nurses were there or not.
+
+Ann Jones subsequently testified before the coroner: "Before one and two
+o'clock on Thursday afternoon (Dec. 16), she kept talking to herself. I
+could not understand whether she was speaking Welsh or English. Up to
+that time I could understand her. She pointed her fingers at some books;
+I gave her one, but she took no notice of it; she was not able to read
+it. _Both parents were then told the girl was dying._"
+
+Repeatedly they were begged to withdraw the nurses, and again and again
+they refused, saying there was no occasion--that she had often been in
+that way, that it was not from want of food, etc. The girl became weaker
+and weaker; low, muttering delirium ensued, and on the 17th of December,
+1869, at about half-past three o'clock, P.M., the "Welsh Fasting Girl"
+died, actually starved to death, in the middle of the nineteenth century
+and in one of the most Christian and civilized countries of the world!
+
+But this was not the end. Public opinion was much excited both against
+those who had sanctioned and conducted what appeared to have been a
+senseless and cruel experiment, and against the father and mother who
+had wilfully and persistently refused to allow food to be given to the
+dying child. A coroner's inquest was held, and the coroner appears to
+have made a very satisfactory charge to the jury after the rendition of
+the testimony. He said there could be no doubt of the child having died
+of starvation, and that the responsibility rested with the father, who
+had knowingly and designedly failed to cause his child to take food. The
+mother was not responsible unless it could be shown that she had been
+given food for the child by the father, and had withheld it from her. It
+was marvellous, he said, how the father could have made out such a
+story--such a hideous mass of nonsense, as he had under oath attempted
+to impose on the jury.
+
+The jury deliberated for a quarter of an hour, and then returned a
+verdict of "Died from starvation, caused by negligence to induce the
+child to take food on the part of the father;" which constituted
+manslaughter.
+
+Evan Jacob was therefore arrested. But the Secretary of State for the
+Home Department took the matter up and determined that the proceedings
+should go farther than the local authorities intended. At first it was
+contemplated to indict the members of the General Committee for
+conspiracy, but it was finally concluded to include only the medical
+gentlemen who had accepted the responsibility of superintending the
+watching, as well as both parents of the deceased child.
+
+The initial proceeding took place before a full bench of magistrates,
+and continued eight days. The Crown and the accused had eminent counsel,
+and many witnesses were examined. At the conclusion of the inquiry the
+presiding magistrate announced that it had been determined by the court
+that no case had been made out against the physicians, who had not been
+shown to have undertaken any other duty than that of advising the
+nurses, and that it did not appear that their advice had been asked. As
+to the father and mother the court had decided to send them both for
+trial for manslaughter, at the next assizes. In due time they were
+arraigned, they pleaded not guilty, but after being defended by able
+counsel, the jury, after an absence of about half an hour, returned with
+a verdict of guilty against both the prisoners, but with a
+recommendation of the mother to the merciful consideration of the court,
+on the ground that she was under the control of her husband. The man
+protested his innocence, and the woman "buried her face in her shawl and
+wept bitterly."
+
+His Lordship, in passing sentence, said: "Prisoners at the bar, you have
+been found guilty of a most aggravated offence. I entirely concur with
+the verdict which the jury have given, and I shall act upon the
+recommendation which they have presented in favor of the female
+prisoner, the mother, though, I must say, that I cannot but feel that it
+is a greater crime in the mother than the father, since it is more
+contrary to the common nature of mothers, to neglect their children in
+the manner in which you have treated this unfortunate child. It is
+contrary to the nature, even, of a father. But I shall act upon the
+recommendation of the jury, upon the ground they have put forward, that
+you have been subject to the control of your husband more than has
+appeared from the evidence of the case. But the offence is, as I have
+said, a serious one, on this ground; that there can be no doubt that
+both of you have persisted in this fraudulent deception, upon your
+neighbors, and upon the public, and that in order to carry out that
+fraudulent deception and to preserve yourselves from detection you were
+willing to risk the life of that child. The life of that child has been
+lost in that wicked experiment which you tried. Therefore, the sentence
+that I shall inflict on you, Evan Jacob, is, that you be imprisoned and
+kept at hard labor for twelve calendar months; and that upon you, Hannah
+Jacob, will be more lenient in consideration of the recommendation of
+the jury, and it is, that you be imprisoned and kept to hard labor for
+the period of six calendar months."
+
+Thus ended one of the most remarkable and interesting histories of human
+folly, credulity, and criminality which the present day has produced.
+Comment upon its teaching is scarcely necessary; but the thoughtful
+reader will not fail to perceive how important a bearing it has upon the
+whole subject of belief without full and free inquiry, and that how all
+the facts which science has gathered during ages of painful labor, go
+for naught, even with educated persons, when brought face to face with
+the false assertions of a hysterical girl, and of two ignorant and
+deceitful peasants. If there is any one thing we know, it is that there
+can be no force without the metamorphosis of matter of some kind. Here
+was a girl maintaining her weight--actually growing--her animal heat
+kept at its due standard, her mind active, her heart beating, her lungs
+respiring, her skin exhaling, her limbs moving whenever she wished them
+to move, and all, as very many persons supposed, without the ingestion
+of the material by which alone such things could be. And yet such is the
+tendency of the average human mind to be deceived, that it would be
+perfectly possible to re-enact in the city of New York the whole tragedy
+of Sarah Jacob, should ever a hysterical girl take it into head to do
+so; and there would not be wanting, even from among those who might read
+this history, individuals who would credit any monstrous declarations
+she might make. Even now in a little town in Belgium, an ecstatic girl
+is going through the same performance with extraordinary additions, and
+books are written by learned physicians and theologians, with the object
+of establishing the truth of her pretensions. To this most remarkable
+instance, and one other of similar though perhaps even more remarkable
+characteristic, the attention of the reader will presently be invited.
+But in view of these things one is almost tempted to say with Cardinal
+Carafa, "_Quandoquidem populus decipi vult, decipiatur_."
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[3] "De puella qu� sine cibo et potu vitam transigit." Parisiis Ann.
+MDXLII.
+
+[4] "{Parat�r�se�n} sive observationum medicarum, rararum, novarum,
+admirabilium, et monstrosarum. Volumen, tomis septem de toto homine
+institutum." Lugduni 1606, p. 306.
+
+These cases are cited by Wanley in his "Wonders of the Little World,"
+but I have taken care in most instances to refer to the originals,
+several of which are in my library.
+
+[5] "Wonders of the Little World." London, 1806, p. 375.
+
+[6] Opuscula Medica. Parisiis, 1639, pp. 64, 65, 66.
+
+[7] Observationum et curationum chirurgicarum, centuria secunda. Genev�,
+1611, p. 116.
+
+[8] Wonderful Characters: By Henry Wilson and James Caulfield. London.
+
+[9] British Medical Journal, July 16, 1870.
+
+[10] A complete History of the Welsh Fasting Girl (Sarah Jacob,) with
+Comments thereon, and Observations on Death from Starvation. London,
+1871.
+
+
+
+
+III.
+
+ABSTINENCE FROM FOOD WITH STIGMATIZATION.
+
+
+One hundred and fifty-three persons have at one time or another,
+according to Dr. Imbert-Gourbeyre,[11] received the stigmata; that is,
+been marked in a miraculous manner with the wounds received by Christ at
+the crucifixion. Of these, eight, are according to the same authority
+now living, and two assert that they do not eat. I propose to consider
+at some length the main points in the histories of these two, Palma
+d'Oria and Louise Lateau, and in so doing I shall avail myself of the
+works of those, who are firm believers in the miraculous interposition
+of God to produce the effects, of which they are said to be the
+subjects. These cases are very little known in this country. Instances
+of the kind are extremely rare among practical common sense nations,
+like those inhabiting the British Isles, and their descendants in
+America. Of the whole one hundred and fifty-three cases recorded by Dr.
+Imbert-Gourbeyre, but one--Jane Gray--was British, and hers is the most
+doubtful case in the list, for the fact rests only on the testimony of
+one Thomas Bourchier, an English minor brother, who asserts that she had
+the stigmata in the feet. Of the remainder, the very large majority are
+of Italy, and as Dr. Imbert-Gourbeyre says:
+
+"Quel pays fut jamais si fertile en miracles?"[12]
+
+To the account of a visit made to Oria for the purpose of studying the
+phenomena exhibited by Palma, made by Dr. Imbert-Gourbeyre, I am
+indebted for the following details:
+
+Palma, at the time of the visit in 1871, was sixty-six years old,
+hump-backed, thin, small, and with light, expressive eyes. For several
+years she had not left the house, and was, on account of her sufferings,
+scarcely able to walk. Occasionally, when she felt particularly well,
+she took a few steps about the room supported by a cane. In her youth
+she had been very strong and active.
+
+At the first interview, after some conversation in the course of which
+Palma declared that she had often seen Louise Lateau while in ecstasy,
+the doctor directed the conversation towards the subject of
+hallucination. While thus engaged and seated close to Palma, he felt her
+strike him gently on the arm, and at the same time saw the abb�, who had
+come with him, fall on his knees. He turned toward Palma; her eyes were
+closed, her hands clasped, her mouth wide open, and on her tongue he saw
+the host--the body of Christ. Immediately, he fell on his knees also,
+and worshipped it. Palma protruded her tongue still farther, as if she
+wanted to give him every opportunity of seeing that the host was really
+there; then she ate it, closed her mouth and remained perfectly quiet on
+the sofa upon which she was reclining. It was then almost four o'clock
+in the afternoon, the day was fading, the room was badly lit by a little
+window, high from the floor. The miraculous host appeared to him to be
+as white as wax, and somewhat thick. On account of the little light, and
+the short time that this extraordinary communion lasted, he was unable
+to determine whether or not it was marked according to the custom of the
+church.
+
+In regard to this wonderful event--that is, if it be not a fact viewed
+unequally--it is further to be said that Palma disclosed to Dr.
+Imbert-Gourbeyre, that two or three times, the holy element, which be it
+remembered is believed by the great majority of Christians to be the
+real body of Christ, was brought to her by the devil, and that then she
+refused it. Sometimes he had the figure of an angel, but she knew him by
+the sign of reprobation which he wore on his forehead--a little horn.
+Moreover she saw that the wicked creature hesitated, and was a little
+embarrassed. She intoned the _Gloria Patri_, and made the sign of the
+cross, and he instantly took flight and disappeared. In order to
+ascertain what it all meant, her confessor forbade her to receive the
+miraculous communion for eight days. Hardly had that period expired when
+Jesus Christ himself brought her the communion. Before giving it to her
+he made her recite the _Gloria Patri_ three times. Then he said to her,
+"Have I fled as the demon did? No. Therefore reassure yourself. It is
+really I."
+
+These miraculous circumstances had been going on for about two years
+when Dr. Imbert-Gourbeyre made his visit to Palma. Sometimes it was
+brought to her by Christ, as in the instance specified, or by some
+saint, as St. Peter, St. Vincent de Paul, St. Francis d'Assisi, in the
+company of her guardian angel, and other saints and angels. At other
+times it was brought by priests and confessors of the olden time, long
+since dead.
+
+An Italian bishop stated, that at the moment of the miraculous sacrament
+on one occasion, he had seen the host flying through the air before
+entering Palma's mouth, but the doctor questioned her attendant on this
+point, and she declared that she had not seen that, and she assured him
+that the host was never seen by any one till it rested on Palma's
+tongue. The doctor inclines to the belief that the attendant was right,
+but he states that nevertheless a French apostolic missionary had
+asserted that he had seen the same thing.
+
+Well, if the consecrated bread be really the body of Christ that was
+given for the salvation of the world, what horrible blasphemy to state
+such things of it, what vileness to believe them, what a barefaced
+imputation on the reason of man to spread these shocking details before
+him and ask him to accept them as true of the God he worships!
+
+After witnessing the communion, Dr. Imbert-Gourbeyre was requested to
+withdraw into the adjoining room, while Palma got ready for her other
+performances. In a few minutes he was informed that all was in order.
+One of the women went in first and returning immediately, the others
+were invited to enter. The stigmatization had already begun on the
+forehead. He saw a stream of blood flowing from the left frontal
+eminence along the side of the nose. A handkerchief was given to Palma;
+she held it to her nose for a moment and the h�morrhage soon stopped. He
+examined the blood and found that it did not differ in appearance, color
+or temperature from ordinary blood. He then examined the handkerchief,
+and besides numerous rotund spots he perceived other figures resembling
+hearts, with stains of blood proceeding from them, indicating the flames
+of love. All this appeared to him to be very extraordinary, for though
+he had often seen people bleed from the nose, he had never seen them
+bleed like that.
+
+After this incident Palma continued the performances--_actions de grace_
+he calls them--her hands clasped and her eyes closed. In the lower
+limbs, especially the left, there was a tremor like a nervous trembling
+which was soon quieted. After a few minutes she rubbed her hands
+together, made the sign of the cross and returned naturally to the
+conversation. He then examined her forehead and endeavored to ascertain
+where the blood had come from. The skin was intact without the least
+opening. She showed him above the right frontal eminence a hole in the
+cranium, from which at a former period, five little pieces of bone had
+been discharged. The opening was entirely covered over by the scalp, and
+he was surprised to find that there was no cicatrix. It was round, the
+end of his index finger entered it readily, and it was just such an
+opening as would have been produced by the crown of a trephine. At the
+time it was made, the skin opened to allow of the exit of the pieces of
+bone; then it closed without leaving the trace of a scar. It was the
+same with the stigmata. They closed at once without there being any
+marks to indicate the place whence the blood had flowed. This hole in
+the skull had been caused by some particular circumstances that no one
+was willing to reveal to him, but which he says are reported in the
+journal of the directors of this woman, and which will soon be
+published. Most medical men will come to the conclusion that it was due
+to caries and necrosis of the bone, of syphilitic origin.
+
+During another visit Palma told Dr. Imbert-Gourbeyre that she had eaten
+nothing for seven years, but that she was obliged to drink frequently on
+account of the great internal heat, which like a fire consumed her. She
+then drank in his presence two carafes of water at one time, and the
+doctor states that "this water became so hot in her stomach that it was
+vomited boiling. She also had often ejected from her mouth oil, and
+another fluid of a balsamic character, in which, on standing for some
+time, bodies resembling the consecrated host were formed."
+
+The doctor then relates the following details, which I give in his own
+words, in further illustration of the character of his mental
+organization and of the pretensions put forth by the woman, whose word
+seems to have been sufficient to convince him of anything at all, no
+matter how preposterous. Four years previously he had been so
+unfortunate as to lose by death his eldest child:
+
+"A year after his death, I had met a woman of great renown for piety,
+and who was even regarded as a receiver of celestial communications. I
+had commended my poor Joseph to her. Some time after she assured me that
+my son was saved, and that he was in paradise. She declared that in a
+vision she had seen him near our Lord; he was happy. Various
+circumstances, which it is useless to mention here, had caused me to
+believe in the truth of this asserted revelation. Being in Oria, I
+wished to have as much certainty as possible in regard to the matter,
+and as I knew that Palma was in spiritual communication with many pious
+souls scattered over the earth, I said to her in the course of our
+conversation, 'tell me, Palma, do you know M. ---- de X----,' giving her
+the baptismal name of the woman in question. 'No sir,' she answered. I
+then related to her my history in detail, taking care not to ask her
+opinion in advance, although I felt sure that she would explain the
+thing to me. She listened with the utmost attention to the superioress
+who translated my words, and when Mother Becaud came to say that the
+woman had had a vision of my son, and that he was in paradise, Palma
+stretched out her arm in a solemn manner as a sign of negative, and said
+to me, 'He is saved, but he is still in purgatory.'
+
+"'Is it possible? Palma,' I cried, profoundly moved: 'Since you tell me
+this, you are in conscience bound to get him out of that place of
+expiation as soon as possible, and I commend him immediately to your
+prayers.'
+
+"'Yes, sir,' she said, 'I will pray for him, and when I am sure of his
+deliverance, I will send you word by Father de Pace.'
+
+"The following morning at my visit I again commended my poor child to
+Palma, and on the following Friday evening on taking leave of her, I
+asked if she had prayed that morning for my son, 'No sir,' she answered.
+'I will only do so on the day of All Saints.' 'Then,' said I to Palma,
+'will you allow madame the superioress to take the answer?' 'Very
+willingly,' said the seeress. On the 7th of November, I received at Nice
+the following letter:
+
+    "'SIR,
+
+    "'I have fulfilled the promise which I made to you in accordance
+    with your wish to go to Palma on All Saints Day, in order to
+    ascertain whether or not your wishes in regard to your son had been
+    granted. That good soul assured me twice that he had gone to heaven
+    that very morning, God be praised a thousand times!
+
+    "'Thus sir, I have done what I could for your consolation.
+
+                          "'I have the honor to be, etc.
+
+                                               "'Sister Marie Becaud.'
+
+"This letter was post marked at Oria, November 2d."
+
+I should not venture to insult the intelligence of the reader with these
+idiotic details but for the reasons stated, and additionally, that they
+carry conviction with them to thousands of minds, honest doubtless, but
+which are accustomed to grovel in superstition, and falsehood, which
+they are unable to test by right standards.
+
+A phase in Palma's spiritual pathology has been alluded to cursorily,
+but has not yet been considered with the fulness proper in connection
+with stigmatization, and that is the occurrence of h�morrhagic spots on
+various parts of her body, and which she so managed as to convey the
+idea that they were symbolical of various holy things. On the back of
+her hand she convinced Dr. Imbert-Gourbeyre that she bled in the shape
+of the cross, and he gives a wood-cut representing a cross on the dorsum
+of the hand, a little above the space between the first and second
+fingers. This is surrounded by other rectilinear figures. On her breast
+and back, other figures were obtained by placing handkerchiefs on the
+parts. The doctor thus procured several mementoes of his visit, in the
+shape of pieces of linen stained with spots of blood somewhat resembling
+hearts, with flames coming out of them, suns, roses, crosses, etc. He
+gives several plates in his book representing these figures, of the
+reality of the miraculous formation of which he has not the slightest
+doubt.
+
+Another phenomenon has also been mentioned incidentally, and that is the
+intense heat which Palma declared she felt, and which the doctor refers
+to as the "divine fire." He had brought with him from Paris, a
+thermometer to use in determining the extraordinary temperature of this
+fire. He examined her with this instrument while she felt this divine
+fire, but failed to find any abnormal increase; her pulse at the time
+was 72. "I made this experiment," he says, "to satisfy my scientific
+conscience, [God save the mark!] but I ought to say that I was ashamed
+of myself for presuming to measure this divine fire by such an
+instrument." He is right, science is not for him, or those like him.
+
+On one occasion while Palma was in ecstasy, Antonietta, who was near
+her, laid bare her chest a little, and cried with enthusiasm, "she is
+burning!" Dr. Imbert-Gourbeyre approached and smelt something like the
+burning of linen. The dress was opened and her chemise was found to be
+burnt on the left side just over the collar bone, and immediately below
+this, scorched in the shape of "a magnificent emblem representing a
+monstrance. The fire was invisible, but its traces were very evident."
+
+In a note he states that it was affirmed that Palma's temperature on
+similar occasions had reached 100� centigrade, (212� Fahrenheit) a fact
+which he does not doubt, although his thermometer did not show it. "That
+her chemise," he says, "burnt by invisible fire, which escaped the
+thermometer, was more extraordinary than if the instrument had indicated
+a temperature of 100�."
+
+I shall not stop now to comment further on the circumstances detailed by
+Dr. Imbert-Gourbeyre, and of which I have cited but a small part. I will
+only say at present that science and common sense would conclude in
+regard to Palma d'Oria,
+
+1st. That she had probably at a former period contracted syphilis.
+
+2d. That she was strongly hysterical.
+
+3d. That she was the subject of purpura h�morrhagica.
+
+4th. That she was a most unmitigated humbug and liar.
+
+And now we come to the consideration of a case of stigmatization which
+has greatly stirred both the theological and the scientific world of
+Europe--that of Louise Lateau--and here again I shall draw largely,
+though by no means exclusively, from the works of the believers in the
+miraculous production of the phenomena manifested.[13]
+
+Louise Lateau was born at Bois-d'Haine, a small village in Belgium, on
+the 30th of January, 1850. She was reared in the utmost poverty, was
+chlorotic, and did not menstruate till she was eighteen years old. She
+loved solitude and silence, and when not engaged in work--and she does
+not appear to have labored much--she spent her time in meditation and
+prayer. She was subject to paroxysms of ecstasy, during which, as many
+other ecstasies, she spoke very edifying things, of charity, poverty,
+and the priesthood. She saw St. Ursula, St. Roch, St. Theresa, and the
+Holy Virgin. Persons who saw her in these states declared that, while
+lying on the bed, her whole body was raised up more than a foot high,
+the heels alone being in contact with the bed.
+
+The stigmatization ensued very soon after these seizures. On a Friday
+she bled from the left side of her chest. On the following Friday this
+flow was renewed, and in addition, blood escaped from the dorsal
+surfaces of both feet; and on the third Friday, not only did she bleed
+from the side and feet, but also from the dorsal and palmar surface of
+both hands. Every succeeding Friday the blood flowed from these places,
+and finally other points of exit were established on the forehead and
+between the shoulders.
+
+At first these bleedings only took place at night, but after two or
+three months they occurred in the daytime, and were accompanied by
+paroxysms of ecstasy, during which she was insensible to all external
+impressions, and acted the passion of Jesus and the crucifixion.
+
+M. Warlomont, being commissioned by the Royal Academy of Medicine of
+Belgium to examine Louise Lateau, went to her house, accompanied by
+several friends, and made a careful examination of her person. At that
+time, Friday morning at six o'clock, the blood was flowing freely from
+all the stigmata. In a few moments the sacrament would be brought to
+her, and then the second act of the drama would begin. The scene that
+followed can be best described in M. Warlomont's own words:
+
+"It is a quarter-past six. 'Here comes the communion,' said M. Niels [a
+priest], 'kneel down.' Louise fell on her knees on the floor, closed her
+eyes and crossed her hands, on which the communion-cloth was extended. A
+priest, followed by several acolytes, entered; the penitent put out her
+tongue, received the holy wafer, and then remained immovable in the
+attitude of prayer.
+
+"We observed her with more care than seemed to have been hitherto given
+to her at similar periods. Some thought that she was simply in a state
+of meditation, from which she would emerge in the course of half an hour
+or so. But it was a mistake. Having taken the communion, the penitent
+went into a special state. Her immobility was that of a statue, her eyes
+were closed; on raising the eyelids the pupils were seen to be largely
+dilated, immovable, and apparently insensible to light. Strong pressure
+made upon the parts in the vicinity of the stigmata caused no sensation
+of pain, although a few moments before they were exquisitely tender.
+Pricking the skin gave no evidence of the slightest sensibility. A limb,
+on being raised, offered no resistance, and sank slowly back to its
+former position. An�sthesia was complete, unless the cornea remained
+still impressionable. The pulse had fallen from 120 to 100 pulsations.
+At a given moment I raised one of the eyelids, and M. Verriest quickly
+touched the cornea. Louise at once seemed to recover herself from a
+sound sleep, arose and walked to a chair, upon which she seated herself.
+'This time,' I said, 'we have wakened her.' 'No,' said M. Niels, looking
+at his watch, 'it was time for her to awake.'"
+
+She remained conscious; the blood still continued to flow; the
+an�sthesia had ceased, her pulse rose to 120, and at the end of half an
+hour she was herself. "Our first visit ended here. At half-past eleven
+we made another. The poor child had resumed her attitude of extreme
+suffering, against which she contended with all the energy that remained
+to her. The wounds in the hands still continued to bleed. M. Verriest
+auscultated with care the lungs, heart, and great vessels, and found the
+_bruit de souffle_, which he had detected in the morning at the apex of
+the heart and over the carotids. The handle of a spoon pressed against
+the velum, the base of the tongue, and the pharynx, provoked no effort
+at vomiting. The glasses of our spectacles, as they came in contact with
+the air expired, were covered with vapor. As the patient appeared to
+suffer from our presence, we went away.
+
+"We made our third visit at two o'clock. There were still fifteen
+minutes before the beginning of the ecstatic crisis, which always took
+place punctually at a quarter past two and ended at about half past
+four. The pupils at this time were slightly contracted, the eyelids were
+almost entirely closed; the eyes, looking at nothing, were veiled from
+our view. We tried in vain to attract her attention; her mind was
+otherwise engaged, and her pains were evidently becoming more intense.
+At exactly a quarter past two her eyes became fixed in a direction above
+and to the right. The ecstasy had begun.
+
+"The time had now come to introduce those who were prompted by
+curiosity. This could now be done without inconvenience, for the
+ecstatic, for the ensuing two hours, would be lost to the appreciation
+of what might be passing around her. The room crowded, could hold about
+ten persons, but enough were allowed to enter to make the total
+twenty-five. These placed themselves in two ranks, of which the front
+one kneeling, allowed the rear ones to see all that was going on. All
+this was done under the direction of M. le Cur�, who took every pains to
+give us a good view of what was going to happen.
+
+"Louise was seated on the edge of her chair; her body, inclined forward,
+seemed to wish to follow the direction of her eyes, which did not look,
+but were fixed on vacancy. Her eyes were opened to their fullest
+extent, of a dull, lustreless appearance, turned above and to the right,
+and of an absolute immobility. A few workings of the lids were now
+observed and became more frequent if the eyelids were touched. The
+pupils, largely dilated, showed very little sensibility to light, and
+all that remained of vision was shown by slight winking when the hand
+was suddenly brought close to the eyes. The whole face lacked
+expression. At certain moments, either spontaneously or as a consequence
+of divers provocations, a light smile, to which the muscles of the face
+generally did not contribute, wandered over her lips. Then the face
+resumed its primitive expression, and thus she remained for the
+half-hour which constituted the 'first station.'
+
+"The 'second station' was that of genuflection. It had failed at one
+time, but had again appeared. The young girl fell on her knees, clasped
+her hands, and remained for about a quarter of an hour in the attitude
+of contemplation. Then she arose and again resumed her sitting posture.
+
+"The 'third station' began at three o'clock. Louise inclined herself a
+little forward, raised her body slowly, and then extended herself at
+full length, face downward, on the floor. There was neither rigidity nor
+extreme precipitation; nothing in fact, calculated to produce injuries.
+The knees first supported her body, then it rested on these and the
+elbows, and finally her face was brought in actual close contact with
+the tiled floor. At first the head rested on the left arm, but very soon
+the patient made a quick and sudden movement, and the arms were extended
+from the body in the form of a cross. At the same time the feet were
+brought together so that the dorsum of the right was in contact with
+the sole of the left foot. This position did not vary for an hour and a
+half. When the end of the crisis approached, the arms were brought close
+to the sides of the body, then suddenly the poor girl rose to her knees,
+her face turns to the wall, her cheeks become colored, her eyes have
+regained their expression, her countenance expands, and the ecstasy is
+at an end."
+
+Further particulars are given, and an apparatus was constructed and
+applied to Louise's hand and arm so as to prevent any external
+excitation of the h�morrhage. It was apparently shown that there was no
+such interference, for the blood began to flow at the usual time on
+Friday.
+
+In addition to the stigmata and the paroxysms of ecstasy, Louise
+declared that she did not sleep, had eaten or drank nothing for four
+years, had had no f�cal evacuation for three years and a half, and that
+the urine was entirely suppressed.
+
+M. Warlomont examined the blood and products of respiration chemically,
+and satisfied himself of their normal character, except that the former
+contained an excessive amount of white corpuscles.
+
+When being closely interrogated, Louise admitted that, though she did
+not sleep, she had short periods of forgetfulness at night. On M.
+Warlomont suddenly opening a cupboard in her room, he found it to
+contain fruit and bread, and her chamber communicated directly with a
+yard at the back of the house. It was therefore perfectly possible for
+her to have slept, eaten, defecated, and urinated, without any one
+knowing that she did so.
+
+The conclusions arrived at by M. Warlomont were, that the
+stigmatizations and ecstasies of Louise Lateau were real and to be
+explained upon well-known physiological and pathological principles,
+that she "worked, and dispensed heat, that she lost every Friday a
+certain quantity of blood by the stigmata, that the air she expired
+contained the vapor of water and carbonic acid, that her weight had not
+materially altered since she had come under observation. She consumes
+carbon and it is not from her own body that she gets it. Where does she
+get it from? Physiology answers, 'She eats.'"
+
+Relative to the assumed abstinence in the cases of Palma d'Oria, Louise
+Lateau and other subjects of ecstasy and stigmata, it is not necessary,
+in view of the remarks already made on this subject in a previous
+chapter, to devote further consideration to it here. The conclusion
+arrived at by M. Warlomont is the only one which science can tolerate.
+Should Louise Lateau or Palma d'Oria ever be subjected to as close
+watching as was the poor little Welsh Fasting Girl, Sarah Jacob, it will
+certainly terminate as badly for them as for her, unless they yield to
+the demands of nature and take the food which the organism requires.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[11] Les Stigmatis�es; Palma d'Oria, etc. 2d Edition, Paris, 1873, p.
+263.
+
+[12] Op. cit., t. ii.
+
+[13] For the theological view of this remarkable case the reader is
+referred to the following works, a part only of those written in support
+of her pretensions. "Louise Lateau de Bois-d'Haine, sa vie, ses extases,
+ses stigmates: �tude M�dicale," par le Dr. Lefebvre, Louvain, 1873. "Les
+stigmatis�es; Louise Lateau, etc.," par le Docteur A. Imbert-Gourbeyre,
+Paris, 1873. "Biographie de Louise Lateau," par H. Van Looy, Tournai,
+Paris and Leipzig, 1874. "Louise Lateau de Bois-d'Haine etc.," par le
+Dr. A. Rohling, Paris, 1874. "Louise Lateau, ihr Wunderleben u.s.w.,"
+Von Paul Majunke, Berlin, 1875.
+
+Among the treatises in which the miracle is denied, and the phenomena
+attributed to either disease or fraud are; "Louise Lateau; Rapport
+M�dical sur la stigmatis�e de Bois-d'Haine, fait � l'acad�mie royale de
+m�decine de Belgique," par le Dr. Warlomont, Bruxelles and Paris, 1875.
+"Science et miracle, Louise Lateau, ou la stigmatis�e Belge," par le Dr.
+Bourneville, Paris, 1875. "Les Miracles," par M. Virchow, Revue des
+cours scientifiques, January 23rd 1875.
+
+
+
+
+IV.
+
+THE BROOKLYN CASE.
+
+
+For several years past there have been rumors more or less definite in
+character that a young lady in Brooklyn was not only living without
+food, but was possessed of some mysterious faculty by which she could
+foretell events, read communications without the aid of the eyes, and
+accurately describe occurrences in distant places, through clairvoyance
+or whatever other name may be applied to the influence.
+
+Finally, in the _New York Herald_ of October 20th, 1878, appeared an
+account, headed "Life without Food. An Invalid Lady who for fourteen
+years has lived without nourishment." As this account is apparently
+authentic, and as the statements made have never been contradicted, I do
+not hesitate to quote from it. Some of the letters which have appeared
+in response to a proposition I offered, and to which fuller reference
+will presently be made, have accused me of dragging the young lady
+before the public. It will be seen, however, that her friends and
+physicians are responsible for all the publicity given to the case.
+
+Leaving out of consideration for the present the alleged marvellous
+endowments of this young lady, as regards seeing without her eyes,
+second sight, etc., I quote from the _Herald_ the essential points
+relative to her clinical history and abstinence from food:
+
+"In a modest, secluded house at the corner of Myrtle Avenue and Downing
+Street, Brooklyn, lives an invalid lady afflicted with paralysis, with a
+history so remarkable and extraordinary that, notwithstanding it is
+vouched for by physicians of standing, it is almost incredible. It is
+claimed that for a period of nearly fourteen years she has lived
+absolutely without food or nourishment of any kind. The case has been
+kept by the family of the patient a well guarded secret, it having led
+them to a strict seclusion as the only means of protection against the
+visits of the curious and incredulous.
+
+"The name of the remarkable person is Miss Mollie Fancher. To the half
+dozen medical gentlemen who have seen and attended her, her case is
+inexplicable. To learn the history of the strange case a _Herald_
+reporter yesterday called on several persons familiar with the facts.
+The first person seen was Dr. Ormiston, of No. 74 Hanson Place,
+Brooklyn, who attended her. He said:--'It seems incredible, but from
+everything I can learn Mollie Fancher never eats. The elder Miss
+Fancher, her aunt, who takes care of her, is a lady of the highest
+intelligence. She was at one time quite wealthy, and she has at present
+a comfortable income. I have every reason to believe that her statements
+are in every detail reliable. During a dozen visits to the sick chamber
+I have never detected evidence of the patient having eaten a morsel.'"
+
+After interviewing a lady intimate with the family, the reporter sought
+out Dr. Speir, the attending physician of the patient, and thus details
+his experience with that gentleman:
+
+"Dr. Speir was found in his comfortable little office, and the errand of
+the writer made known:--
+
+"'Is it true, Doctor, that a patient of yours has lived for fourteen
+years without taking food?'
+
+"'If you refer to Miss Fancher, yes. She became my patient in 1864. Her
+case is a most remarkable one.'
+
+"'But has she eaten nothing during all these years?'
+
+"'I can safely say she has not.'
+
+"'Are the family also willing to vouch for the truth of this
+extraordinary statement?'
+
+"'You will find them very reticent to newspaper men and to strangers
+generally. I do not believe any food--that is, solids--ever passed the
+woman's lips since her attack of paralysis, consequent upon her mishap.
+As for an occasional teaspoonful of water or milk, I sometimes force her
+to take it by using an instrument to pry open her mouth, but that is
+painful to her. As early as 1865 I endeavored to sustain life in this
+way, for I feared that, in obedience to the universal law of nature, she
+would die of gradual inanition or exhaustion, which I thought would
+sooner or later ensue; but I was mistaken. The case knocks the bottom
+out of all existing medical theories, and is, in a word, miraculous.'
+
+"'Did you ever,' asked the reporter, 'make an experiment to satisfy your
+professional accuracy in regard to her abstinence?'
+
+"'Several times I have given her emetics on purpose to discover the
+truth; but the result always confirmed the statement that she had taken
+no food. It sounds strangely, but it is so. I have taken every
+precaution against deception, sometimes going into the house at eleven
+or twelve o'clock at night, without being announced, but have always
+found her the same, and lying in the same position occupied by her for
+the entire period of her invalidity. The springs of her bedstead are
+actually worn out with the constant pressure. My brethren in the medical
+profession at first were inclined to laugh at me, and call me a fool and
+spiritualist when I told them of the long abstinence and keen mental
+powers of my interesting patient. But such as have been admitted to see
+her are convinced. These are Dr. Ormiston, Dr. Elliott and Dr.
+Hutchison, some of the best talent in the city, who have seen and
+believed.'"
+
+And then the following account is given of the accident from which the
+young lady suffered, and to which the remarkable phenomena she is said
+to exhibit are ascribed:
+
+"The story of Miss Fancher's accident and its melancholy consequences is
+quite affecting. It is collected from the various statements given by
+half a dozen friends of the family to the _Herald_ reporter. Interwoven
+with it is a thread of romance, a tale of early love and courtship, of a
+life embittered by a cruel accident, of patient waiting, and a final
+release of the suitor from his engagement to marry another.
+
+"Mary's parents live in a sumptuous dwelling on Washington Avenue,
+Brooklyn, and were reported to be wealthy. Their favorite daughter
+Mollie, as she was called, was sent to Prof. West's High School in
+Brooklyn at an early age, and here developed many brilliant qualities of
+mind and heart, which augured well for her future. At seventeen she was
+pretty, petite and well cultivated. As a member of the Washington Avenue
+Baptist Sunday School, she met and learned to love a classmate, named
+John Taylor. An engagement followed the intimacy of the Sunday School
+class, and the young people looked forward with buoyant spirits to the
+bright life so soon to dawn upon them.
+
+"But fate decreed differently. While getting off a Fulton Street car one
+day in 1864, on her return from school, the young lady slipped and fell
+backward. Her skirt caught on the step unseen by the conductor, who
+started the car on its way again. The poor girl was dragged some ten or
+fifteen yards before her cries were heard and the brake applied. When
+picked up she was insensible and was carried, suffering intense agony
+from an injured spine, to her home near by. Forty-eight hours afterward
+she was seized with a violent spasm which lasted for over two days. Then
+came a trance, when the sufferer grew cold and rigid, with no evidence
+of life beyond a warm spot under the left breast, where feeble
+pulsations of her heart were detected by Dr. Speir. Only this gentleman
+believed she was alive, and it was due to his constant assertion of the
+girl's ultimate recovery that Miss Fancher was not buried. Despite the
+best medical help and the application of restoratives, no change was
+brought about in the patient's condition until the tenth week, when the
+strange suspension of life ceased and breath was once more inhaled and
+breathed forth from her lungs.
+
+"To their dismay the doctors then found that Mollie had lost her sight
+and the power of deglutition, the latter affliction rendering it
+impossible for her to swallow food or even articulate by the use of
+tongue or lip. Previous to her trance a moderate quantity of food had
+been given her each day; but since then she has not taken a mouthful of
+life-sustaining food. Spasms and trances alternated with alarming
+frequency since Miss Fancher was first attacked. First her limbs only
+became rigid and disturbed at the caprice of her strange malady; but as
+time passed her whole frame writhed as if in great pain, requiring to be
+held by main force in order to remain in the bed. She could swallow
+nothing, and lay utterly helpless until moved."
+
+In the _Sun_, of November 24th, 1878, a fuller account of this young
+lady was given, mainly however, in regard to her "clairvoyant," or
+"second-sight" power. Relative to her abstinence from food, I quote the
+following conversation between the reporter and Dr. Speir.
+
+"'Is it true that she has not partaken of food in all these thirteen
+years?'
+
+"'No: I cannot say that she has not; I have not been constantly with her
+for thirteen years; she may have taken food in my absence. Her friends
+have used every device to make her take nourishment. Food has been
+forced upon her, and artificial means have been resorted to that it
+might be carried to her stomach. Nevertheless, the amount in the
+aggregate must have been very small in all these years.'
+
+"'You have considered the case of such extraordinary importance as to
+take many physicians to see it?'
+
+"'I have, and it has excited very much of attention. I have letters
+about it from far and near, and the medical journals have asked for
+information.'"
+
+And this with Dr. Ormiston:
+
+"Dr. Robert Ormiston, who has been one of Miss Fancher's physicians from
+the first, who has seen her constantly in all the different conditions
+of her system, said yesterday that he was convinced that there could be
+no deception. He could find no motive for it, and he did not believe
+that she had attempted it. As to her not partaking of food, he had with
+Dr. Speir made tests that satisfied him that she ate no more than she
+pretended to, and in the aggregate it had not, in all these years,
+amounted to more than the amount eaten at a single meal by a healthy
+man. Dr. Ormiston narrated many curious incidents of the girl's illness,
+and verified the facts of her physical condition as narrated elsewhere."
+
+In order that no injustice may be done to these gentlemen, I quote the
+following from the _Sun_ of November 26th:
+
+"Dr. R. Fleet Speir, one of Miss Fancher's physicians, smiled last
+evening when the _Sun_ reporter asked him what he thought of Dr.
+Hammond's opinions on the case. 'I probably have just as high an opinion
+of Dr. Hammond's opinions as Dr. Hammond has of mine,' he said. 'My
+opinion on the case of Miss Fancher I have always refused to give to any
+one. When I first took the case, years ago, I told the family that I
+would not give them an opinion on it; that I would do what I could with
+it, and that I hoped to bring about a cure. I do not believe in
+clairvoyance or second sight, or anything of the kind. I think I stand
+with the most rigid school on that subject.'
+
+"'But do you think Miss Fancher deceives or endeavors to?'
+
+"The Doctor smiled again. 'Now I do not want you to interview me on
+that. My theory has along been to do nothing to irritate my patient; I
+humored her, and have endeavored in that way to get her confidence, to
+get complete control of her, if possible. In that way I may get her
+mind diverted, and by and by get her out of bed. I have hoped to see her
+cured. I do not see what earthly good a scientific investigation would
+do her. On the contrary, it would harm her. Put a relay of physicians to
+watch her, and she would undoubtedly do her best to beat them. She would
+hold out against them, and likely as not die.'
+
+"Dr. Robert Ormiston said that he thought that the Brooklyn physicians
+knew quite as much about the case as their New York brethren, and that
+their opinions were of as much weight. 'It has become a most interesting
+case from a medical standpoint, because during her long illness, she has
+gone through all the different phases of hysteria that have heretofore
+been observed in many different cases. I think I am correct in this
+statement.'"
+
+From all that can be ascertained therefore, it appears that the young
+lady in question received a severe injury to the spinal cord, in
+consequence of which she became paralyzed in the lower extremities, in
+which members contractions also took place. It is probable also that the
+great sympathetic nerve and brain were involved in the injury.
+
+Confined to her bed, her bodily temperature being low, and passing a
+good of her time in trances or periods of insensibility, the
+requirements of the system as regarded food would necessarily be
+limited. But this is the most that can be said. She _did_ breathe, her
+heart _did_ beat, she required _some_ bodily heat, and the various other
+functions of her organism could not have been maintained without the
+expenditure of matter of some kind. During abstinence from food the body
+itself is consumed for these purposes, and there being no renovation,
+no supplies from without, it loses weight with every instant of time
+until death finally ensues. An emaciated person can withstand this drain
+less effectually than one who is stout and fat.
+
+Again, it is said that the food taken by Miss Fancher was at once
+rejected. That it was _all_ rejected, is in the highest degree
+improbable; a portion remained, and this portion, small as it was, did
+good service when very little was required.
+
+Another point: that Miss Fancher was hysterical admits of no doubt.
+Hysteria is a disease as much in some cases beyond the control of the
+patient as inflammation of the brain or any other disease. A proclivity
+to simulation and deception is just as much a symptom of hysteria as
+pain is of pleurisy. To say, therefore, that she simulated abstinence
+and deceived us to the quantity of food she took, is no imputation on
+her honesty, or questioning her possession of as high a degree of honor
+and trust, as can be claimed by any one. Other women naturally as moral
+as she, have under the influence of hysteria perpetrated the grossest
+deceptions, and they are not unfrequently manifested in the very same
+way that hers apparently are. Her case is by no means an isolated one;
+it is not such as has never been seen before; it does not "knock the
+bottom out of all existing medical theories, and is in a word
+miraculous," as one of the physicians is reported to have said. On the
+contrary, similar ones are often met with as we have seen, and the
+following which I quote from Millingen,[14] is so like it in many
+respects, that the two might have been formed after a common model, as
+in fact they were, just as two or more cases of pneumonia follow a well
+defined type.
+
+"Another wonderful instance of the same kind is that of Janet McLeod,
+published by Dr. McKenzie. She was at the time thirty-three years of
+age, unmarried, and from the age of fifteen had had various attacks of
+epilepsy, which had produced so rigid a lock-jaw that her mouth could
+rarely be forced open by any contrivance; she had lost very nearly the
+power of speech and deglutition, and with this all desire to eat or
+drink. Her lower limbs were contracted towards her body; she was
+entirely confined to her bed, and had periodical discharges of blood
+from the lungs, which were chiefly thrown out by the nostrils. During a
+few intervals of relaxation she was prevailed upon with great difficulty
+to put a few crumbs of bread comminuted in the hand, into her mouth,
+together with a little water sucked from her one hand, and, in one or
+two instances, a little gruel, but even in these attempts almost the
+whole was rejected. On two occasions also, after a total abstinence of
+many months, she made signs of wishing to drink some water, which was
+immediately procured for her. On the first trial the whole seemed to be
+returned from the mouth, but she was greatly refreshed in having it
+rubbed upon the throat. On the second occasion she drank off a pint at
+once, but could not be prevailed upon to drink any more, although her
+father had now fixed a wedge between her teeth. With these exceptions,
+however, she seemed to have passed upwards of four years without either
+liquids or solids of any kind, or even an appearance of swallowing; she
+lay for the most part like a log of wood, with a pulse scarcely
+perceptible for feebleness, but distinct and regular. Her countenance
+was clear and pretty fresh; her features neither disfigured nor sunk;
+her bosom round and prominent, and her limbs not emaciated. Dr. McKenzie
+watched her, with occasional visits, for eight or nine years, at the
+close of which period she seemed to be a little improved."
+
+This account, like that given of Miss Fancher, tells us nothing definite
+in regard to the fasting abilities of the young woman. It simply, with
+the other, may be accepted as indicating that hysterical women are able
+to go for comparatively long periods without food, and that fact we
+already knew. It will be observed that it is stated that she "_seemed_"
+to go four years without food or drink.
+
+In regard to Miss Fancher, the evidence is a little conflicting. First
+we have Dr. Speir reported as saying, in answer to a question as to her
+having lived fourteen years without food:
+
+"'Yes, she became my patient in 1864. Her case is a most remarkable
+one.'
+
+"'But has she eaten nothing during all these years?'
+
+"'I can safely say she has not.'"
+
+This in the _Herald_.
+
+But about a month afterward we find the following conversation, reported
+as taking place between the same physician and another reporter, this
+time of the _Sun_:
+
+"'Is it true that she has not partaken of food in all these thirteen
+years?'
+
+"'No, I cannot say that she has not; I have not been constantly with her
+for thirteen years. She may have taken food in my absence.'"
+
+In which opinion all physiologists will join.
+
+As I have said, hysterical women certainly do exhibit a marked ability
+to go without both food and drink. I have had patients abstain from
+sometimes one, sometimes the other, and sometimes both, for periods
+varying from one day to eleven, and this without much, if any,
+suffering, for as soon as the suffering came they did not hesitate to
+signify their desire to break their voluntary fasts. Real suffering is a
+condition which the hysterical woman avoids with the most assiduous
+care.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[14] Curiosities of Medical Experience. London, 1837, Vol. I., page 269,
+article, _Abstinence_.
+
+
+
+
+V.
+
+THE PHYSIOLOGY AND PATHOLOGY OF INANITION.
+
+
+The opinion that food and drink are necessary to life is so generally
+accepted by mankind, that few venture to dispute the dictum of Virchow
+relative to Louise Lateau, "Fraud or miracle." But although it is
+impossible so far as we know for individuals to continue to exist for
+months and years without the ingestion of nutriment into the system, it
+is undoubtedly true that under certain circumstances life can be
+prolonged for days and weeks without any food of any kind going into the
+organism.
+
+The body is a machine constructed for the purpose of working. The kinds
+of work which the body of a man or woman does are many. Every act of
+perception or sensation, is an act of work; so is every thought, every
+emotion, every volition. The action of the heart or lungs in the
+circulation and respiration, the evolution of the animal heat, the
+various functions of secretion and excretion, digestion, motion,
+speech, etc., are all so many kinds of work. Now as regards work, it is
+well known that for its due performance force is required, and it is
+equally well known that for the development of force, matter that can be
+metamorphosed is necessary. The engine may be perfect, the water may be
+in the boiler, but unless there be force in the form of heat there will
+be no steam; and there will be no heat unless there be fuel in a state
+of combustion.
+
+The human body differs from any other machine in the fact that it uses
+its fuel in great part indirectly; only in fact after it has been
+assimilated and converted into tissues of various kinds. Thus when a
+muscle contracts, it is the muscle itself which is consumed; when a
+thought is conceived it is the brain which provides the force; when an
+emotion is experienced, it is again the brain which is decomposed. The
+body, therefore, lives by the death of its own substance. It is true,
+some kinds of food such as alcohol, tea and coffee, and perhaps some
+others do not require to go farther than the blood to be burned, but
+these are mainly heat-producing, and not tissue-producing substances.
+But whether matter be consumed directly or indirectly, all bodily force
+results from its decomposition, and without this destruction of matter
+the body would be absolutely incapable of a single functional action of
+any kind whatever, and its temperature like that of the so-called
+cold-blooded animals would be that of the surrounding medium, the
+atmosphere.
+
+The quantity of food required by the system varies like the demands of
+other machines in accordance with the amount of work which is to be
+performed. A plowman, other things being equal, consumes more than a
+watchmaker; just as a locomotive burns more fuel than the little engine
+that runs a sewing machine; the strong able-bodied active man, one who
+works his brains and muscles up to their full power, eats more than the
+weak, emaciated and inactive girl, who passes all her time in the
+recumbent position in bed; and the latter will, other things being
+equal, endure for a longer period entire abstinence from food. A little
+food with such a one goes a great way, the demands of the system are at
+their minimum, and hence a mouthful of bread, or a little tea and toast
+taken at long intervals, suffices for the supply of all, or a great
+portion of the waste of the body. With such a person there is not much
+intense thought, there is little or no muscular action, the pulsations
+of the heart do not require to be of much force, the respiration is
+feeble, digestion is at its lowest point, there are no great demands for
+animal heat, and in fact if the temperature of the atmosphere of the
+room in which such a person lies, be kept high, the function of
+calorification may be almost nothing. Still there must be some food
+taken. The body, can to a certain extent, be used up in supplying the
+force required for the several functions without the necessity for an
+immediate restoration of its tissues, but there is a limit to this,
+beyond which it is certain death to go.
+
+Chossat[15] has determined this point very accurately by many
+experiments performed upon doves, pigeons, Guinea pigs, rabbits, etc. He
+found that as a mean result, death ensued when the body lost four-tenths
+of its original weight. For instance, a body weighing one hundred
+pounds, could endure the loss of forty pounds without death necessarily
+following. Five-tenths or one-half appeared to be the extreme loss of
+weight in inanition which the body could endure without death resulting.
+
+In addition to the loss of weight the temperature fell rapidly, the
+action of the heart was lessened, the number and depth of the
+respirations was diminished, and the excretions gradually became smaller
+in amount.
+
+Experiments such as those of Chossat on the lower animals, cannot of
+course be instituted on the human subject, nevertheless nature sometimes
+performs experiments for us which are not without valuable results; and
+accidents of various kinds, have also given us important data.
+
+On the 19th of March, 1755, twenty-two persons living in the Alpine
+village of Bergemoletto, in Piedmont, were buried in their houses by an
+avalanche or whirlwind of snow. The space covered was about 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 Foder�[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. Foder� 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 deprived of all
+food dies sooner than a healthy person. An insane person suffering from
+acute mania also resists inanition badly, but one the subject of
+melancholia often endures the total deprivation of aliment for a long
+time. Esquirol[20] cites the case of a melancholic who did not succumb
+till after eighteen days of complete abstinence, and Desbarreaux-Bernard
+another in which life was prolonged for sixty-one days, but in this case
+a little broth was taken once. Desportes[21] refers to the case of a
+woman subject to melancholia who continued to exist during two months of
+abstinence, during which she took nothing into the stomach but a little
+water.
+
+It would be easy to go on and quote other instances occurring among
+prisoners, shipwrecked persons, those suffering from diseases which
+prevented food entering the stomach, others lost in deserts, forests,
+etc., in which life has been prolonged for considerable periods. Such
+cases are, however, quite exceptional. An interesting instance occurring
+under one of these heads may, however, be cited as an example.
+
+M. L�pine[22] reports the case of a young girl nineteen years of age who
+swallowed a quantity of sulphuric acid. As a consequence a stricture of
+the [oe]sophagus was produced. Three months after the act, liquids alone
+passed into the stomach; emaciation was extreme and the countenance
+pallid. Four months subsequently, that is, seven months after swallowing
+the acid, the obliteration of the [oe]sophagus was complete, and
+nothing whatever could be swallowed. The patient lived for sixteen days
+after all food or drink was prevented reaching the stomach. During the
+last days of her starvation she complained only of thirst and not of
+hunger. The prostration was extreme and the temperature greatly
+lessened. A tendency to sleep was present, and there was a subdued
+delirium. On the last day of life there was more excitement; the
+conjunctiv� were red, the pulse thread-like, and the skin cold. It is
+not stated whether or not attempts were made to feed this patient by
+injections into the rectum of nutritious substances, or by the use of
+baths containing such matters in solution. It may, however, safely be
+taken for granted that efforts of these kinds were made, and if so, the
+unusually long period during which life was sustained is explained.
+
+In all the cases in which life was extraordinarily prolonged there was
+either not a total deprivation of food and drink, or there was a state
+of muscular inaction present particularly favorable to retardation of
+the destructive changes in the body which abstinence produces. It may be
+asserted that in ordinary cases absolute deprivation of food and drink
+cannot be endured by a healthy adult longer than ten days, and death
+generally ensues before the end of the eighth day. It is said that women
+sustain abstinence better than men. Young persons and the aged certainly
+resist with less power than those of the middle period of life. Dante
+was aware of this fact when he made the children of Ugolino die before
+their father, the youngest first, the oldest last.
+
+Even though there be a total deprivation of what may strictly be called
+food, some of the cases already cited show that if water be taken life
+is preserved for a much longer period than would otherwise be the case.
+Thus a negro woman, according to Dr. J. W. Francis,[23] believing
+herself to be bewitched, abstained from food for three weeks, but during
+this period took two small cups of water, to which a very little wine
+had been added.
+
+In a case reported by Dr. McNaughton[24] a longer resistance was
+maintained.
+
+"The subject of this case was a young man, aged twenty-seven, who for
+three years immediately preceding his death almost constantly kept his
+room, apparently engaged in meditation, a Bible his only companion. At
+the latter end of May, 1829, his appetite began to fail; he ate very
+little, and on the 2d of July he declined eating altogether. For the
+first six weeks of his fast he went regularly to the well, washed
+himself, and took a bowl full of water with him into the house. With
+this he occasionally washed his mouth and drank a little; the quantity
+taken during the twenty-four hours did not exceed a pint. On one
+occasion he went three days without taking water, but on the fourth
+morning he was observed to go to the well and drink copiously and
+greedily. For the first six weeks he walked out every day, and sometimes
+spent the greater part of the day in the woods. He retained his strength
+until a short time before his death. During the first three weeks he
+emaciated rapidly; afterwards he did not seem to waste so sensibly.
+Prof. Willoughby visited him a few days before he died. He found the
+skin very cold, the respiration feeble and slow, but otherwise natural;
+but the effluvia from the breath, and perhaps the skin, were extremely
+offensive. During the greater part of the latter week of his life the
+parents say there was a considerable discharge of foul reddish matter
+from the lungs. To this perhaps the offensive smell referred to may be
+chiefly attributed. The pulse was regular, but slow and feeble, and the
+arteries extremely contracted. The radial artery, for example, could be
+distinctly felt like a small, hard thread, communicating almost a wiry
+feel.
+
+"The alvine evacuations were rare; it is believed that he passed several
+weeks without any, but the secretion of urine seemed more regular. He
+died after fasting fifty-three days. On dissection the stomach was found
+loose and flabby. The gall bladder was distended with a dark,
+muddy-looking bile. The mesentery, stomach and intestines were
+excessively thin and transparent. There was no fat in the omentum."
+
+In cases of complete abstinence, the phenomena--to several of which
+attention has already been called--are very striking. The respiration
+becomes slow until just before death, when, as Chossat observes, there
+is often a quickening of the respiratory movements. The exhaled breath
+has a peculiarly sickening and fetid odor. The pulse loses in force and
+frequency.
+
+The blood becomes reduced in quantity to such an extent sometimes that,
+as observed by Collard and Martigny,[25] incisions may be made in
+various parts of the bodies of animals suffering from inanition without
+there being any h�morrhage.
+
+The animal temperature falls, according to Chossat, 8� per day until the
+day of death, when it reaches 14�; and at the moment life departs, the
+loss suddenly becomes 30�.
+
+All the secretions are diminished in quantity. This is especially shown
+as regards the saliva and urine. Even open sores cease to secrete pus.
+
+At first there is pain, the seat of which is referred to the stomach,
+and which pain in the beginning, being simply a feeling of emptiness,
+rapidly assumes a gnawing or tearing character. But before long this
+fades away and it does not appear that in the middle and final stages of
+inanition there is any suffering which can be called a pain, or which
+can be fixed in any definite part of the body.
+
+The mental faculties are profoundly affected. A high state of delirium
+supervenes, and there are often hallucinations. These sometimes relate
+to food, which appears to the sufferer to be spread out before him in
+the most seducing manner. All nobility of character disappears, and
+selfishness and brutality govern. Finally the delirium becomes low and
+muttering, the bodily weakness becomes excessive, walking, or even
+standing, is impossible, the sufferer loses all sensation, and death
+ensues.
+
+But probably no part of the subject is of more interest than that which
+relates to the association of inanition with hysteria. As is well known
+by physicians, the existence of this latter condition enables many to
+bear partial, or even complete deprivation of food longer and with less
+apparent suffering than would be possible with individuals in good
+health.
+
+That Miss Fancher is subject to hysteria is very evident from a
+consideration of the clinical history of her case, and hence it is to
+be expected that she can endure long fasts without much inconvenience.
+It is just possible that she might, by remaining quietly in bed in a
+state of partial or complete trance--a hysterical condition in which the
+waste of the tissues is greatly reduced--exist for a month without
+either food or drink, and therefore the proposition which I made to her
+friends contains no exacting condition. But when it is gravely said that
+"for a period of nearly fourteen years she has lived absolutely without
+food or nourishment of any kind," we are forced to declare, in the
+interest of science, that the statement is necessarily absolutely devoid
+of truth. Subsequent statements, as we have seen, modify this fourteen
+years' claim very materially, and really leave it in doubt whether there
+was any abstinence at all.
+
+But I think it may safely be believed that Miss Fancher has indulged in
+frequent long fasts. Hysteria is very frequently marked, not only by the
+ability to endure lengthened periods of abstinence, but by the abolition
+of all desire for food, to such an extent that the sight or even idea of
+aliment of any kind excites loathing and disgust. M. Las�gue,[26] in a
+very interesting memoir, has discussed this part of the subject with
+great precision, and has shown that though such patients take very
+little food they do take some, and that eventually they experience all
+the symptoms of inanition. He has never seen death result from the
+abstinence, for as soon as the condition becomes decidedly unpleasant
+the patient resumes gradually her normal alimentation.
+
+In a case recently under my care, a young lady twenty-three years of
+age became hysterical in consequence of domestic troubles, and losing
+all desire for food, took nothing daily but a single cup of chocolate.
+She persevered in this restricted diet for twenty-nine days, although
+during the last eight or ten she gave decided evidences of starvation.
+She became emaciated, her temperature fell, especially in the
+extremities, her breath was offensive, her menstruation ceased, and
+there was such a marked sense of discomfort that she began to crave
+food, not, as she said, because her appetite had returned, but because
+she was afraid she would die. Still she resisted till, on the thirtieth
+day, she begged for a little beef tea, and from that moment her appetite
+returned to her, and by the end of another week, she was eating her
+ordinary quantity and variety of food.
+
+Now, in this case, though the amount of nutriment taken daily was small,
+it was of such a character as to be well able to sustain life. The half
+pint of chocolate contained milk and sugar, besides the highly
+nutritious chocolate, with its carbonaceous and nitrogenous matters, and
+yet a month was the extreme limit of endurance.
+
+That a state of inanition exists in Miss Fancher is not to be doubted.
+The extreme emaciation, the reduced bodily temperature, the contracted
+stomach and intestines, the great bodily weakness, all show that she is
+not sufficiently nourished. In her case there is apparently not only an
+absence of appetite but a positive disgust for food; and another symptom
+often present in inanition--vomiting when nutriment is taken into the
+stomach--appears also to be a prominent feature. It is probable that
+there is likewise a notable diminution in the amount of urine excreted,
+as this is a common accompaniment of hysterical manifestations such as
+hers. In some instances the function appears to be almost entirely
+arrested, as was the fact in a case described by M. Charcot,[27] and in
+two which have come under my own observation.
+
+There is nothing remarkable in the admitted fact that Miss Fancher eats
+very little. We have seen how existence can be kept up on greatly
+reduced quantities of food, and under circumstances such as those
+governing her case, for periods which would be impossible in healthy
+persons. No one yet under any conditions, whether of hysteria or trance
+or assumed miraculous interference, has, to the satisfaction of
+competent and disinterested investigators, lived even two months without
+the ingestion of any food whatever. As to going nearly fourteen years in
+a state of abstinence--a statement in her behalf which many persons
+believe to be true--I can only say that all the teachings of science and
+of experience are against the claim. No one who had the most superficial
+idea of what knowledge is and how facts can be proven, would for a
+moment accept such a preposterous story, no matter by whom asserted.
+
+The whole subject is one which is to be examined into and determined
+like any other matter, and yet, when a proposition is made to
+investigate by skilled observers the remarkable claim put forward, it is
+met with abuse and misrepresentation, as if these people thought that
+all they had to do was to make an assertion of a phenomenon which,
+according to what we know of nature, is absurd and impossible, to have
+it at once accepted by those who know, by painful experience, how
+doubtful all things are till they are proven, and how difficult it is
+to get satisfactory evidence of the most simple event in physiology or
+pathology. No one doubts the abstract possibility of a human being
+living without food, for, bearing in mind the discoveries that are
+constantly being made, nothing can be regarded as absolutely impossible
+outside the domain of mathematics. Two and two cannot make six, neither
+can two distinct bodies occupy the same space at the same time, nor the
+square of the hypothenuse be otherwise than equal to the sum of the
+squares of the other two sides of a right-angled triangle.
+
+Our knowledge of natural science is, however, founded on experience.
+Looking at a bear, for instance, for the first time, and with no
+knowledge of its habits and capacities we would not be apt to believe
+that the animal could go into retirement at the beginning of winter and
+remain till spring in a condition of semi-existence and without food.
+But experience teaches us that the bear when it begins to hibernate is
+fat; that during hibernation it is in a perfectly quiescent state; that
+when it emerges into active life again it is emaciated, and that during
+the whole period of retirement it has taken nothing into its stomach. We
+then know by observing that all bears go through the same process, that
+it is a law of their organism to do so, and that their reduced
+functional actions are maintained by the consumption of the fat with
+which in the beginning their bodies were loaded. Even here, then, there
+is no exception to the law that there is no force without the
+decomposition of matter. Now, it is just possible that by some hitherto
+unknown or unrecognized condition of the system a man or woman may
+obtain the force necessary to carry on life for fourteen years without
+getting it through food taken into the stomach. But a possibility and a
+fact are two very different things, and the admitted possibility has not
+yet been shown to be a fact. It is easier--to use the argument of
+Hume--for the mind to accept the view that there is deception or error
+somewhere, than to believe that a woman, contrary to all human
+experience, should live fourteen years without food. Turtles, we know,
+will live for months while entirely deprived of nutriment. Many others
+of the cold-blooded animals will do the same thing. It is their nature
+to do so, and we have experience of the fact, but it is not the nature
+of women, so far as we know, and therefore we refuse to accept as true
+the stories which are told of their powers in this direction. And our
+knowledge is based not only on our daily experience of the wants of
+their systems and the examples of starvation which have come to our
+knowledge, but also upon the fact that in the many cases of alleged long
+abstinence from food that have been investigated, error or deception has
+been discovered. Therefore, when it is said that Miss Fancher lives
+without food, and has so done for fourteen years, we simply say, "give
+us the proofs." Of course the proofs are not given.
+
+How far Miss Fancher is responsible for the assertions that have been
+made in regard to her long-continued abstinence I do not know. A
+tendency to deception is a notable phenomenon of hysteria, and if she
+has led those about her to accept the view that she has existed without
+food for years, the circumstance would be in no way remarkable. Other
+hysterical women have deceived in the same or in still more astonishing
+ways. Or it may be that the amount of food taken being very small,
+carelessness or want of exactness has led to the expression that she
+lived upon "absolutely nothing," just as we hear the words used every
+day by those who have little or no appetite, but who nevertheless do eat
+something. Again, a love for the marvellous is so deeply rooted in the
+average human mind that it willingly, and to a certain extent
+unconsciously, adds to any statement of a remarkable circumstance, till
+the latter grows, whilst being repeated, to fabulous dimensions.
+
+But however this may be, whatever the explanation, it is quite certain
+that if Miss Fancher has lived fourteen years without food, or even
+fourteen months, or weeks, she is a unique psychological or pathological
+individual, whose case is worthy of all the consideration which can be
+given to it, not by superstitious or credulous or ignorant persons, but
+by those who, trained in the proper methods of scientific research,
+would know how to get the whole truth of her case, and nothing but the
+truth. It is to be regretted, therefore, that the proposition contained
+in the annexed letter (Appendix) was not accepted, and that we are
+forced to place Miss Fancher's case among the others which have proved
+to be fallacious, till such time as it may suit her and her friends to
+allow of such an examination.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[15] Recherches exp�rimentales sur l'inanition. Paris, 1843, p. 20.
+
+[16] Universal Magazine, Vol. XXXVI, p. 250.
+
+[17] Abridged Philosophical Transaction, Vol. III, p. 111.
+
+[18] Trait� de m�decine l�gale et d'hygi�ne publique. Paris, 1813. t.
+II, p. 285.
+
+[19] Medical Gazette, Vol. XVII, p. 389.
+
+[20] Des maladies mentales. Paris, 1838, p. 203.
+
+[21] Du refus de manger chez les ali�n�s. Th�se de Paris 1864, p.
+
+[22] Nouveau dictionnaire de m�decine et de chirurgie pratiques. Paris,
+1874. t. XVIII., Art. Inanition, p. 503.
+
+[23] New York Medical and Surgical Journal, Vol. II, p. 31.
+
+[24] Quoted from Trans. of the Albany Institute by Dr. Lee in Copland's
+Dictionary of Medicine. Vol. I, p. 31.
+
+[25] Recherches exp�rimentales sur les effets de l'abstinence. _Journal
+de Physiologie_ de Magendie, t. VIII, p. 150.
+
+[26] De l'anorexie hyst�rique. _Archives g�n�rales de m�decine_, April
+1875.
+
+[27] Le�ons sur les maladies du syst�me nerveux, t. I., 2d edition.
+Paris, 1876, p. 178.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX.
+
+
+The following letter embraces the proposition made to Miss Fancher, to
+which allusion is made in the text:
+
+    TO THE EDITOR OF THE HERALD:--
+
+    I have read the letter of Professor Henry M. Parkhurst, published in
+    a recent issue of the HERALD, relative to the "mind reading" or
+    clairvoyance of Miss Mollie Fancher, of Brooklyn, and it does not
+    satisfy me that the young lady in question possesses any such power.
+    It would have been very easy for her to have opened the envelope
+    without disturbing the seal and to have read the contents. Now,
+    there has been a great deal of talk about Miss Fancher's case. I
+    have received just fifty-seven letters asking me to investigate it,
+    and the press has reiterated the invitation over and over again. I
+    have stated very explicitly that I regard the whole matter as a
+    humbug of the most decided kind, but I have never asserted the
+    impossibility of the young lady's alleged performances. On the
+    contrary, I hold nothing to be absolutely impossible outside the
+    domain of mathematics. But possibilities and realities are very
+    different things, and I certainly will not accept as true any such
+    phenomena as those asserted to have been associated with Miss
+    Fancher unless they are proven.
+
+    I have already declared my readiness to investigate Miss Fancher,
+    and, a few days since, in the _Sun_, proposed a test which will be
+    perfectly satisfactory to me and many others who, at present, are in
+    accordance with me in my estimation of this young lady. Permit me
+    now to state it definitely, specifically, and once for all. I will
+    place a certified check for a sum of money exceeding $1,000 inside
+    of a single paper envelope. I will lay the package on a table in the
+    room in which she is. If she chooses she may take it in her hands
+    and place it in contact with any part of her body. I will allow her
+    half an hour to describe the check. If she reads it--number, date,
+    on whom drawn, amount, signature, etc.--accurately, she may have the
+    check as her own property, or I will give the amount expressed in
+    the check, in her name to any charitable institution she may
+    designate, or otherwise dispose of it in accordance with her
+    wishes.
+
+    The only conditions I exact are these:--
+
+    _First_--That the experiment be conducted in my presence and in that
+    of two other physicians, members of the New York Neurological
+    Society, whom I will bring with me as witness simply, and who will
+    not interfere in any way with the test.
+
+    _Second_--That the envelope shall at no time pass out of our sight.
+
+    If Miss Fancher succeeds in this test I will admit that heretofore
+    in my denunciations of such performances as hers I have been in
+    error, and that there is a force in nature which ought to be
+    investigated. I will pay the money not only without chagrin, but
+    with great satisfaction, and will consider that I have received full
+    value.
+
+    If she fails, as I am quite sure she will, I shall not hesitate to
+    continue to denounce her as an imposition in this as well as in her
+    assumed abstinence from food.
+
+    A word further in regard to this last matter. I know something about
+    "fasting girls" and their frauds, not excepting the sad case of poor
+    little Sarah Jacob. But I will make this additional proposition:--If
+    Miss Fancher will allow herself to be watched, day and night, for
+    one month, by relays of members of the New York Neurological
+    Society, I will give her $1,000 if at the end of that month she has
+    not in the meantime taken food voluntarily or as a forced measure to
+    save her from dying of starvation, the danger of this last
+    contingency to be judged of by her family physician, Dr. Speir.
+    These offers to remain open for acceptance till twelve o'clock M.,
+    December 31st. If not taken up by that time, let us hear no more in
+    support of Miss Fancher's mind reading or clairvoyance, or living
+    for a dozen or more years without food.
+
+                                              WILLIAM A. HAMMOND, M.D.
+
+    _43 West Fifty-Fourth Street, New York, Dec. 12th, 1878._
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note:
+
+    Hyphenation and punctuation have been standardised. Variant
+    spellings have been retained. Minor typographical errors have been
+    corrected without note, whilst significant amendments have been
+    listed below:
+
+      p. 3, 'Nicholas' amended to _Nicolas_
+      p. 5, 'Aquaintoin' amended to _Aquitaine_
+      p. 5, 'predominent' amended to _predominant_
+      p. 6, 'Geraldus Bucoldianus' amended to _Gerardus Bucoldianus_
+      p. 7, 'f[oe]ces' amended to _f�ces_
+      p. 7, 'developes' amended to _develops_
+      p. 7, fn. 4, '{Pasat�s�se�n}' amended to _{Parat�r�se�n}_
+      p. 7, fn. 4, added _rararum_: 'medicarum, _rararum_, novarum'
+      p. 7, fn. 4, 'monstrasarum' amended to _monstrosarum_
+      p. 8, '1567' amended to _1597_
+      p. 9, fn. 7, 'chirurgic�' amended to _chirurgicarum_
+      p. 15, 'Anne Jones' amended to _Ann Jones_
+      p. 16, 'f[oe]cal' amended to _f�cal_
+      p. 26, 'f[oe]ces' amended to _f�ces_
+      p. 31, 'Cardinal Carrafa' amended to _Cardinal Carafa_
+      p. 40, 'Farenheit' amended to _Fahrenheit_
+      p. 41, fn. 13, 'Rapport M�dicale' amended to _Rapport M�dical_
+      p. 41, fn. 13, added _de_: 'm�decine _de_ Belgique'
+      p. 44, 'ecstacy' amended to _ecstasy_
+      p. 44, added _of_: 'direction _of_ M. le Cur�'
+      p. 46, 'fecal' amended to _f�cal_
+      p. 47, 'stigmatisations' amended to _stigmatizations_
+      p. 48, 'fortell' amended to _foretell_
+      p. 48, 'marvelous' amended to _marvellous_
+      p. 58, 'is' amended to _it_: 'that _it_ is stated'
+      p. 58, 'Dr. Spier' amended to _Dr. Speir_
+      p. 60, 'assimulated' amended to _assimilated_
+      p. 60, 'alchohol' amended to _alcohol_
+      p. 62, 'Bergemolletta' amended to _Bergemoletto_
+      p. 62, 'breath' amended to _breadth_
+      p. 62, 'Belguim' amended to _Belgium_
+      p. 63, fn. 18, 'm�dicine' amended to _m�decine_
+      p. 64, 'palid' amended to _pallid_
+      p. 64, fn. 22, 'Nouvreau' amended to _Nouveau_
+      p. 64, fn. 22, 'm�dicine' amended to _m�decine_
+      p. 67, 'messentery' amended to _mesentery_
+      p. 67, 'their' amended to _there_
+      p. 67, 'hemorrhage' amended to _h�morrhage_
+      p. 68, 'Chosset' amended to _Chossat_
+      p. 69, fn. 26, 'm�dicine' amended to _m�decine_
+      p. 71, 'her's' amended to _hers_
+      p. 71, 'injestion' amended to _ingestion_
+      p. 76, 'Sarah Jacobs' amended to _Sarah Jacob_
+      p. 76, 'Dr. Spier' amended to _Dr. Speir_
+
+    The page reference in fn. 21 (p. 64) was omitted in the original text.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Fasting Girls, by William Alexander Hammond
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+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
+  <head>
+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" />
+    <title>
+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of Fasting Girls, by William A. Hammond
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css">
+/*<![CDATA[  XML blockout */
+<!--
+    p {margin-top: .75em; text-align: justify; margin-bottom: .75em;}
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Fasting Girls, by William Alexander Hammond
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Fasting Girls
+       Their Physiology and Pathology
+
+Author: William Alexander Hammond
+
+Release Date: May 26, 2008 [EBook #25601]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FASTING GIRLS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Bryan Ness, Stephen Blundell and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This
+book was produced from scanned images of public domain
+material from the Google Print project.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<h2>BY THE SAME AUTHOR.</h2>
+
+<div class="bk1"><p class="p7">CEREBRAL HYPER&AElig;MIA: <span class="smcap">the Result of Mental Strain
+or Emotional Disturbances</span>. 16mo, cloth ... $1 00</p>
+
+<p><small>"Under the disguise of these hard words, Dr. Hammond presents a variety
+of admirable counsels, with regard to an excess of blood in the head, pointing
+out its causes, its symptoms, the mode of its medical treatment, and the
+means of its prevention."&mdash;<i>N. Y. Tribune.</i></small></p>
+
+<p><small>"The work is not only of interest to the medical man, but also is one easily
+understood and to be read with profit by brain-workers of all classes, whether
+in profession, in literature or business. It treats of the cause of headaches, the
+wakefulness, the illusions or delusions, and feelings of tightness in the head,
+which so many of our American writers and thinkers experience, and it gives
+valuable information available by laymen as to the prevention and remedy for
+this affection, which later on leads to insanity or death."&mdash;<i>Boston Traveller.</i></small></p>
+
+<p class="td2">G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS, <span class="smcap">Publishers</span>, NEW YORK.</p></div>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h1>FASTING GIRLS;<br />
+<small>THEIR PHYSIOLOGY AND PATHOLOGY</small></h1>
+
+<p class="p2"><small>BY</small></p>
+
+<h2>WILLIAM A. HAMMOND, M.D.</h2>
+
+<p class="center"><small>PROFESSOR OF DISEASES OF THE MIND AND NERVOUS SYSTEM IN THE<br />
+MEDICAL DEPARTMENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF THE CITY OF<br />
+NEW YORK, AND IN THE UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT. ETC.</small></p>
+
+<p class="p3">"There is no new thing under the Sun."<br />
+&mdash;<i>Eccl.</i> I, 9.</p>
+
+<p class="p4">"Nil spernat auris, nec tamen credat statim."<br />
+&mdash;<span class="smcap">Ph&aelig;drus</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="p5">NEW YORK<br />
+<big>G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS</big><br />
+182 FIFTH AVENUE<br />
+1879</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p class="center"><small><span class="smcap">Copyright by</span><br />
+G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS.<br />
+1879.</small></p>
+
+<div class="trn"><p><b>Transcriber's Note:</b>
+Hyphenation and punctuation have been standardised.
+Variant spellings have been retained.
+Greek text appears with a mouse-hover transliteration, <i>e.g.</i>, <span title="Biblos">&#914;&#953;&#946;&#955;&#959;&#962;</span>.
+</p></div>
+
+<hr />
+<h2>PREFACE.</h2>
+
+<p>In issuing this little book I have been actuated by a desire
+to do something towards the removal of a lamentable degree of
+popular ignorance.</p>
+
+<p>It seems that no proposition that can be made is so absurd
+or impossible but that many people, ordinarily regarded as
+intelligent, will be found to accept it and to aid in its propagation.
+And hence, when it is asserted that a young lady has
+lived for fourteen years without food of any kind, hundreds
+and thousands of persons throughout the length and breadth of
+a civilized land at once yield their belief to the monstrous
+declaration.</p>
+
+<p>I have confined my remarks entirely to the question of
+abstinence from food. The other supernatural gifts, the possession
+of which is claimed, would, if considered, have extended
+the limits of this little volume beyond the bounds which were
+deemed expedient. At some future time I may be tempted to
+discuss them. In the meantime it is well to call to mind that
+a proposition (<i>see</i> <a href="#APPENDIX">Appendix</a>) which I made solely in the interest
+of truth was disregarded, ostensibly with the desire to avoid
+publicity, when in fact the daily press had for weeks been filled
+with reports in detail, furnished by the friends of the young
+lady in question, of the marvellous powers she was said to
+possess.</p>
+
+<p>A portion of this essay, which bore upon the matter discussed,
+has been taken from another volume by the author, published
+several years ago, and now out of print.</p>
+
+<p class="td2"><span class="smcap">William A. Hammond.</span></p>
+
+<p class="p7"><span class="smcap">43 West 54th Street,<br />
+March</span> <i>1st, 1879</i>.</p>
+
+<hr />
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td class="td2" colspan="3"><small>PAGE</small></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2">I</td><td class="td1">Abstinence in the Middle Ages</td><td class="td2"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2">II</td><td class="td1">Abstinence in Modern Times</td><td class="td2"><a href="#II">6</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2">III</td><td class="td1">Abstinence from Food, with Stigmatization</td><td class="td2"><a href="#III">31</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2">IV</td><td class="td1">The Brooklyn Case</td><td class="td2"><a href="#IV">48</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2">V</td><td class="td1">The Physiology and Pathology of Inanition</td><td class="td2"><a href="#V">59</a></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span></p>
+<h1>FASTING GIRLS.</h1>
+
+<h2>I.</h2>
+
+<h3>ABSTINENCE IN THE MIDDLE AGES.</h3>
+
+<p>Among the many remarkable manifestations by which hysteria
+exhibits itself, for the astonishment of the credulous and
+uneducated portion of the public, and&mdash;alas, that it should
+have to be said,&mdash;for the delectation of an occasional weak-minded
+and ignorant physician, the assumption of the ability
+to live without food may be assigned a prominent place. I am
+not aware that this power has been claimed in its fullest development
+for the male of the human species. When he is
+deprived of food he dies in a few days, more or less, according
+to his physical condition as regards adipose tissue and strength
+of constitution; but if a weak emaciated girl asserts that she
+is able to exist for years without eating, there are at once certificates
+and letters from clergymen, professors, and even physicians,
+in support of the truth of her story. The element of
+impossibility goes for nothing against the bare word of such a
+woman, and her statements are accepted with a degree of confidence
+which is lamentable to witness in this era of the world's
+progress.</p>
+
+<p>The class of deceptions occasionally induced by hysteria,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span>
+and embracing these "fasting girls," has been known for many
+years, though it is only in comparatively recent times that the
+instances have been taken at their proper value. G&ouml;rres<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> gives
+a number of examples occurring among male and female saints
+and other holy persons, in which partial or total abstinence
+from food was said to have existed for long periods.</p>
+
+<p>Thus Liduine of Schiedam fell ill in 1395, and remained in
+that state till her death, thirty-three years subsequently. During
+the first nineteen years she ate every day nothing but a
+little piece of apple the size of a holy wafer, and drank a little
+water and a swallow of beer, or sometimes a little sweet milk.
+Subsequently, being unable to digest beer and milk, she restricted
+herself to a little wine and water, and still later she
+was obliged to confine herself to water alone, which served her
+both as food and drink. But after nineteen years she took
+nothing whatever, according to her own statement made to
+some friars in 1422, she averring that for eight years nothing in
+the way of nourishment had passed her lips, and that for twenty
+years she had seen neither the sun nor the moon, nor had
+touched the earth with her feet.</p>
+
+<p>Saint Joseph of Copertino remained for five years without
+eating bread, and ten years without drinking wine, contenting
+himself with dried fruits, which he mixed with various bitter
+herbs. The herb which he used for Fridays had such an
+atrocious taste, that one of the brethren, by simply putting
+his tongue to it, was seized with vomiting, and for several days
+thereafter everything he ate excited nausea. He fasted for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span>
+forty days seven times every year, and during these periods ate
+nothing at all except on Sundays and Thursdays.</p>
+
+<p>Nicolas of Flue, as soon as he embraced the monastic life,
+subsisted altogether on the holy eucharist. The pious G&ouml;rres
+in explanation of this miracle says:</p>
+
+<p>"In ordinary nourishment he who eats being superior to
+that which is eaten, assimilates the aliments which he takes,
+and communicates to them his own nature. But in the eucharist
+the aliment is more powerful than he who eats. It is
+no longer therefore the nourishment which is assimilated, but
+on the contrary, it assimilates the man, and introduces him into
+a superior sphere. An entire change is produced. The supernatural
+life in some way or other absorbs the natural life, and
+the man instead of living on earth, lives henceforth by grace
+and by heaven."</p>
+
+<p>This is about on a par, as regards lucidity and logic, with the
+explanations which we are given of the alleged case of prolonged
+fasting in Brooklyn.</p>
+
+<p>Doubts arose in regard to Nicolas, and the bishop had him
+watched, but without detecting him in fraud. Finally he ordered
+him to eat a piece of bread in his presence. Nicolas did as he
+was commanded, but at the first mouthful he was seized with
+violent vomiting. The bishop inquired of him how he thus
+managed to live without eating, to which the brother answered
+that when he assisted at mass, and when he took the holy
+eucharist, he felt a degree of strength and suppleness like that
+derived from the most nutritious food.</p>
+
+<p>Still the doubters continued, and the inhabitants of Underwold,
+where Nicolas lived, appear to have been at first very<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span>
+much inclined to suspect him of deceit. But they were finally
+converted, for having during a whole month guarded every
+approach to his cabin, and having during that time detected
+no one in taking food to him, they were convinced that for
+that time at least he had lived without food. The sceptical
+reasoner of the present day would probably regard the test as
+insufficient.</p>
+
+<p>In 1225, Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln, having heard that there
+was at Leicester a nun who had taken no nourishment for
+seven years, and who lived only on the eucharist, which she
+took every Sunday, gave at first no faith to the story. He sent
+to her, however, fifteen clerks, with directions to watch her
+assiduously for fifteen days, never for an instant losing sight
+of her. The clerks reported to him that they had strictly
+obeyed his commands; that she had taken no nourishment,
+and that yet she nevertheless preserved her full strength and
+health. Whereupon the Bishop declared himself convinced,
+"as," adds G&ouml;rres, "it was proper for a sensible man to do."</p>
+
+<p>Among others of the holy persons who acquired the power
+of living on the sacramental bread, may be mentioned St.
+Catharine of Sienna, Saint Rose of Lima, Saint Collete, Saint
+Peter of Alcantara, and many others.</p>
+
+<p>But if saints and other holy people were able, through
+miraculous power, to live without food, the same ability was
+claimed for those who were under the influence of demons and
+devils. G&ouml;rres<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> states that a person possessed by a devil often
+loses all taste for food of any kind, and can retain no nourishment
+in his body. Another symptom is a disgust which is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span>
+formed for the companionship of other persons. Thus a man
+was tormented by a demon, who forced him to fly into the
+forests, where he hid himself from mankind. One night he
+quit his house, and concealed himself in a cavern, remaining
+there entirely without food for sixteen days. Again he remained
+in the woods twenty-four days, neither eating nor
+drinking during this period. Finally his children found him,
+and taking him to a priest, had the devil exorcised, and he was
+cured.</p>
+
+<p>Saint Prosper, of Aquitaine, speaks of a young girl possessed
+by a devil, and who went seventy days without eating.
+Notwithstanding this long fast, she did not become emaciated,
+because every night at twelve o'clock a bird sent by the devil
+took a mysterious nourishment to her.</p>
+
+<p>An astonishing feature in the cases of the diabolical abstaining
+from food, is that, as in the holy instances, they exhibit
+various manifestations of hysteria. G&ouml;rres, with a charming
+degree of simplicity, details these symptoms and failing, under
+the influence of the predominant idea which fills him, to recognize
+their real character, ascribes them without hesitation to
+devilish agency. Thus he says:</p>
+
+<p>"The functions of the organs of nutrition are sometimes profoundly
+altered in the possessed, and these alterations are manifested
+by violent cramps, which show the extent to which the
+muscular system is affected. The hysterical lump in the throat
+is a frequent phenomenon in possession. A young girl in the
+Valley of Calepino had all her limbs twisted and contracted,
+and had in the &#339;sophagus a sensation as if a ball was sometimes
+rising in her throat, and again falling to her stomach.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span>
+Her countenance was of an ashen hue, and she had a constant
+sense of weight and pain in the head. All the remedies of
+physicians had failed, and as evidences of possession were
+discovered in her, she was brought to Brignoli (a priest) who
+had recourse to supernatural means, and cured her."</p>
+
+<p>Strange to say, the ability to live on the eucharist, and to
+resist starvation by diabolical power, died out with the middle
+ages, and was replaced by the "fasting girls," who still continue
+to amuse us with their vagaries. To the consideration
+of some of the more striking instances of more recent times
+the attention of the reader is invited, in the confidence
+that much of interest in the study of the "History of
+Human Folly" will be adduced.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> La Mystique Divine, Naturelle et Diabolique. Paris, 1861. t. I., p.
+194, <i>et seq.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Op. cit. t. IV., p. 446.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="II" id="II"></a>II.</h2>
+
+<h3>ABSTINENCE IN MODERN TIMES.</h3>
+
+<p>Among the more striking cases under this head, is that
+of Margaret Weiss, a young girl ten years of age, who
+lived at Rode, a small village near Spires, and whose history
+has come down to us through various channels, but principally
+from Gerardus Bucoldianus,<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> who had the medical charge of
+her, and who wrote a little book describing his patient.
+Margaret is said to have abstained from all food and drink for
+three years, in the meantime growing, walking about, laughing,
+and talking like other children of her age. During the
+first year, however, she suffered greatly from pains in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span>
+her head and abdomen, and, a common condition in hysteria&mdash;all
+four of her limbs were contracted. She passed neither
+urine nor f&aelig;ces. Margaret, though only ten years old&mdash;hysteria
+develops the secretive faculties&mdash;played her part so well
+that, after being watched by the priest of the parish and Dr.
+Bucoldianus, she was considered free from all juggling, and
+was sent home to her friends by order of the King, "not," the
+doctor adds, "without great admiration and princely gifts."
+Although fully accepting the fact of Margaret's abstinence, Dr.
+Bucoldianus appears to have been somewhat staggered, for he
+asks very pertinently: "Whence comes the animal heat, since
+she neither eats nor drinks, and why does the body grow when
+nothing goes into it?"</p>
+
+<p>Schenckius<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> quotes from Paulus Lentulus the "Wonderful
+History of the Fasting of Appolonia Schreira, a virgin in
+Berne." Lentulus states that he was with this maid on three
+occasions, and that, by order of the magistrate of Berne, she
+was taken to that city and a strict guard kept upon her. All
+kinds of means were set in operation to detect imposture if
+any existed, but none was discovered, and she was set at liberty
+as a genuine case of ability to live without food. In the
+first year of her fasting she scarcely slept, and in the second
+year never closed her eyes in sleep; and so she continued for
+a long while after.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Schenckius also advances the case of Katharine Binder, of
+the Palatinate, who was closely watched by a clergyman, a
+statesman, and two doctors of medicine, without the detection
+of fraud on her part. She was said to have taken nothing but
+air into her system for nine years and more, as Lentulus reported
+on the authority of Fabricius. This last-named physician
+told Lentulus of another case, that of a girl fourteen years old,
+who certainly had taken neither food nor drink for at least
+three years.</p>
+
+<p>"But," says Dr. Hakewel,<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> "the strangest that I have met
+with of this kind, is the history of Eve Fliegen, out of Dutch
+translated into English, and printed at London, <i>anno</i> 1611,
+who, being born at Meurs, is said to have taken no kind of sustenance
+for the space of fourteen years together; that is, from
+the year of her age, twenty-two to thirty-six, and from the year
+of our Lord 1597 to 1611; and this we have confirmed by the
+testimony of the magistrates of the town of Meurs, as also by
+the minister who made trial of her in his house thirteen days
+together by all the means he could devise, but could detect no
+imposture." Over the picture of this maid, set in front of the
+Dutch copy, stand these Latin verses:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<span class="i0">"Meurs&aelig; h&aelig;c quam cernis decies ter, sexque peregit,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Annos, bis septem prorsus non viscitur annis<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Nec potat, sic sola sedet, sic pallida vitam<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Ducit, et exigui se oblectat floribus horti."<br /></span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Thus rendered in the English copy:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<span class="i0">"This maid of Meurs thirty and six years spent,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Fourteen of which she took no nourishment;<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span>
+<span class="i0">Thus pale and wan she sits sad and alone,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A garden's all she loves to look upon."<br /></span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Franciscus Citesius,<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> physician to the King of France and
+to Cardinal Richelieu, devotes a good deal of space and attention
+to the case of Joan Balaam, a native of the city of Constance.
+She was well grown, but of bad manners. About the
+eleventh year of her age she was attacked with a fever, and
+among other symptoms vomited for twenty days. Then she
+became speechless and so continued for twenty-four days.
+Then she talked, but her speech was raving and incoherent.
+Finally she lost all power of motion and of sensibility in the
+parts below the head and could not swallow. From thenceforth
+she could not be persuaded to take food. Six months
+afterwards she regained the use of her limbs, but the inability
+to swallow remained and she acquired a great loathing for all
+kinds of meat and drink. The secretions and excretions appeared
+to be arrested. Nevertheless she was very industrious,
+employing her time in running errands, sweeping the house,
+spinning, and such like. This maid continued thus fasting for
+the space of nearly three years, and then by degrees took to
+eating and drinking again.</p>
+
+<p>Before coming to more recent cases, there is one other to
+which I desire to refer for the reason mainly that in it there
+was probably organic disease in addition to fraud and hysteria.
+It is cited by Fabricius<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> and by Wanley. <i>Anno Dom.</i>, 1595, a
+maid of about thirteen years was brought out of the dukedom<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span>
+of Juliers to Cologne, and there in a broad street at the sign
+of the White Horse exposed to the sight of as many as desired
+to see her. The parents of this maid affirmed that she had
+lived without any kind of food or drink for the space of three
+whole years; and this they confirmed by the testimony of
+divers persons, such as are worthy of credit. Fabricius observed
+her with great care. She was of a sad and melancholy
+countenance; her whole body was sufficiently fleshy except
+only her belly, which was compressed so as that it seemed to
+cleave to her back-bone. Her liver and the rest of her bowels
+were perceived to be hard by laying the hand on the belly. As
+for excrements, she voided none; and did so far abhor all
+kinds of food, that when one, who came to see her privately,
+put a little sugar in her mouth she immediately swooned away.
+But what was most wonderful was, that this maid walked
+up and down, played with other girls, danced, and did all
+other things that were done by girls of her age; neither had
+she any difficulty of breathing, speaking or crying out. Her
+parents declared that she had been in this condition for three
+years.</p>
+
+<p>A great many more to the same effect might be adduced,
+but the foregoing are sufficient to indicate the fact that belief
+in the possibility of such occurrences was quite general, and
+that if doubt did exist in regard to their real nature, it was not
+so strong as not readily to be overcome by the tricks and devices
+of hysterical women.</p>
+
+<p>In the following instances of more modern date the reader
+will perceive the view which is taken of them by physicians of
+the present day, and will doubtless discover their real nature.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>About sixty-five years ago, a woman of Sudbury, in Staffordshire,
+England, named Ann Moore, declared that she did
+not eat, and a number of persons volunteered to watch her, in
+order to ascertain whether or not she was speaking the truth.
+The watch was continued for three weeks and then the watchers,
+as in other instances, reported that Ann Moore was a real
+case of abstinence from food of all kinds. The Bible was always
+kept open on Ann's bed. Her emaciation was so extreme
+that it was said her vertebral column could be felt through the
+abdominal walls. This sad condition was asserted to have
+been caused by her washing the linen of a person affected with
+ulcers. From that time she experienced a dislike for food, and
+even nausea at the sight or mention of it.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as the watchers reported in favor of the genuineness
+of Ann's pretensions her notoriety increased, and visitors
+came from all parts of the country, leaving donations to the
+extent of two hundred and fifty pounds in the course of two
+years. Doubts, however, again arose, and, bold from the immunity
+she had experienced from the first investigation, Ann
+in an evil moment, for the continuance of her fraud, consented
+to a second watching. This committee was composed of notable
+persons, among them being Sir Oswald Mosley, Bart., Rev.
+Legh Richmond, Dr. Fox, and his son, and many other gentlemen
+of the country. Two of them were always in her room
+night and day. At the suggestion of Mr. Francis Fox, the bedstead,
+bedding, and the woman in it were placed on a weighing
+machine, and thus it was ascertained that she regularly lost
+weight daily. At the expiration of the ninth day of this strict
+watching, Dr. Fox found her evidently sinking and told her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span>
+she would soon die unless she took food. After a little prevarication,
+the woman signed a written confession that she was an
+impostor, and had "occasionally taken sustenance for the last
+six years." She also stated that during the first watch of three
+weeks her daughter had contrived, when washing her face, to
+feed her every morning, by using towels made very wet with
+gravy, milk, or strong arrowroot gruel, and had also conveyed
+food from mouth to mouth in kissing her, which it is presumed
+she did very often.<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p>
+
+<p>In a clinical lecture delivered at St. George's Hospital,<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> Dr.
+John W. Ogle calls attention to the simulation of fasting as a
+manifestation of hysteria, and relates the following amusing
+case:</p>
+
+<p>"A girl strongly hysterical, aged twenty, in spite of all persuasion
+and medical treatment, refused every kind of food, or
+if made to eat, soon vomited the contents of the stomach. On
+November 6th, 1869, whilst the girl was apparently suffering in
+the same manner, the Queen passed the hospital on her way to
+open Blackfriars Bridge. She arose in bed so as to look out of
+the window, although up to this time declaring that every
+movement of her body caused intense pain. On December 29,
+the following letter in the girl's handwriting, addressed to another
+patient in the same ward, was picked up from the floor:
+'My Dear Mrs. Evens,&mdash;I was very sorry you should take the
+trouble of cutting me such a nice piece of bread and butter,
+yesterday. I would of taken it but all of them saw you send<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span>
+it, and then they would have made enough to have talked
+about. But I should be very glad if you would cut me a nice
+piece of crust and put it in a piece of paper and send it, or else
+bring it, so that they do not see it, for they all watch me very
+much, and I should like to be your friend and you to be mine.
+Mrs. Winslow, (the nurse) is going to chapel. I will make it up
+with you when I can go as far. Do not send it if you cannot
+spare it. Good bye, and God bless you.' Although she prevaricated
+about this letter, she appears to have gradually improved
+from this time on, and one day walked out of the hospital
+and left it altogether. She subsequently wrote a letter to
+the authorities expressing her regret at having gone on as she
+did."</p>
+
+<p>One of the most remarkable instances of the kind, is that of
+Sarah Jacob, known as the "Welsh Fasting Girl," and whose
+history and tragical death excited a great deal of comment in
+the medical and lay press in Great Britain a few years ago.
+The following account of the case is mainly derived from Dr.
+Fowler's<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> interesting work.</p>
+
+<p>Sarah Jacob was born May 12th, 1857. Her parents were
+farmers and were uneducated, simple-minded, and ignorant
+persons. In her earlier years she had been healthy, was intelligent,
+given to religious reading, and was said to have written
+poetry of her own composition. She was a very pretty
+child and was, according to the testimony of the vicar, the Rev.
+Evan Jones, a "good girl."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>About February 15th, 1867, when she was not quite ten
+years of age, she complained of pain in the pit of the stomach,
+and one morning on getting up, she told her mother that she
+had found her mouth full of bloody froth. The pain continued,
+and medical attendance was obtained. Soon afterwards she had
+strong convulsions of an epileptiform character and then other
+spasms of a clearly hysterical form, during which her body was
+bent in the form of a bow as in tetanus, the head and heels only
+touching the bed. Then the muscular spasm ceased and she
+fell at full length on the bed. For a whole month she continued
+in a state of unconsciousness, suffering from frequent
+repetitions of severe convulsive attacks, during which time she
+took little food. Mr. Davies, the surgeon, said in his evidence,
+that she was for a whole month, in a kind of permanent fit, lying
+on her back, with rigidity of all the muscles. For some
+time her life was despaired of, then her fits ceased to be convulsive
+and consisted of short periods of loss of consciousness
+with sudden awakings. For the next two or three months (till
+August, 1867) she took daily, from six, gradually decreasing to
+four, teacupfuls of rice and milk, or oatmeal and milk, which
+according to her father's account, was cast up again immediately
+and blood and froth with it. During this time the
+bowels were only acted on once in six or nine days. "Up to
+this time," said her father, "she could move both arms and
+one leg, but the other leg was rigid."</p>
+
+<p>By the beginning of October, 1867, her quantity of daily
+food had, it was affirmed, dwindled down to nothing but a little
+apple about the size of a pill, which she took from a tea-spoon.
+At this time she made water about every other day; she looked<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span>
+very bad in the face, but was not thin. On the tenth day of
+October, it was solemnly declared that she ceased to take any
+food whatever, and so continued till the day of her death, December
+17th, 1869, a period of two years, two months, and one
+week.</p>
+
+<p>"Of the veracity of the assertion in respect of <i>the one week</i>,"
+says Dr. Fowler, "there is unfortunately plenty of evidence.
+To the absurdity of believing in the barest possibility of twenty-six
+months absolute abstinence, it is sufficient to reply that
+when to our knowledge, she was completely deprived of food,
+the girl died! The parents most persistently impressed upon
+every private as well as official visitor, both before and during
+the last fatal watching, that the girl did not take food; that
+she could not swallow; that whenever food was mentioned to
+her she became as it were, excited; that when it was offered
+to her she would have a fit, or the offer would make her ill.
+The sworn testimony of the vicar, the Rev. Wm. Thomas, Sister
+Clinch, Ann Jones, and the other nurses, is sufficiently
+confirmative on this point. Furthermore, the parents went so
+far as to expressly forbid the mere mention of food in the girl's
+presence."</p>
+
+<p>Towards the end of October, 1867, the case had attracted
+so much attention that the inhabitants in the neighborhood first
+began visiting the marvellous little girl.</p>
+
+<p>"In the beginning of November of the same year, the Rev.
+Evan Jones, B.D., the vicar of the parish, was sent for by the
+parents to visit Sarah Jacob. He was at once&mdash;by the mother&mdash;told
+of the girl's wonderful fasting powers; it was admitted
+she took water occasionally. He was also informed of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span>
+extraordinary perversion of her natural functions (the suppression
+of urine and f&aelig;cal evacuations.) He found her lying on
+her back in bed, which was covered with books. There was
+nothing then remarkable about her dress. The girl looked
+weak and delicate, though not pale, and answered only in
+monosyllables. 'The mother said her child was very anxious
+about the state of her soul, that it had such an effect upon her
+mind that she could not sleep.' I asked her myself if she had
+a desire to become a member of the Church of England? She
+said, 'Yes!' She continued to express that wish until July,
+1869. At this time the reverend gentleman did not believe in
+the statements relative to the girl's abstinence. 'Every time,'
+he says, 'that I had a conversation with her up to the end of
+1868, the parents both persisted that she lived without food,
+and continued their statements in January and February, 1869.
+I remonstrated with them and dwelt upon the apparent impossibility
+of the thing. They still persisted that it was a fact.'</p>
+
+<p>"Even as late as September, 1869, the vicar reiterated his
+ministerial remonstrances. When, in the beginning of the
+spring of 1869, he observed the fantastical changes the parents
+made in the girl's daily attire, he told them about the remarks
+made in the papers about this dressing and dwelt upon the impropriety
+of it. They replied, 'She had no other pleasure&mdash;they
+did not like denying it to her.' During the following summer,
+finding that the girl looked more plump in the face and
+that her general improvement was more conspicuous, he said,
+'Sarah is evidently improving and gaining, and you say she
+takes no food; you are certainly imposing on the public.' I
+then dwelt on the sinfulness of continuing the fraud on the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span>
+public. I said there were on record several cases of alleged
+fasting, some of which had been put to the test and had been
+discovered to be impositions; that those families would ever
+be held in execration by posterity, and such would be the case
+with them whenever this imposture was found out. The mother
+then assured me no imposition would be discovered in that
+house, because there was none."</p>
+
+<p>The father and mother both said that the Lord provided for
+her in a most natural way, and that it was a miracle. The
+father always talked about the "Doctor Mawr," meaning God
+Almighty; that she was supported by that "Big Doctor."</p>
+
+<p>Then soon began the custom of leaving money or other
+presents with the child, till at last every one who visited her,
+was expected to give something. Open house was kept and
+pilgrims came from near and far to see the wonderful girl who
+lived without food.</p>
+
+<p>When money was not forthcoming, presents of clothes,
+finery, books, or flowers, appear to have been substituted. Advantage
+was taken of these presents to bedeck the child in
+every variety of smartness. At one time she had a victorine
+about her neck and a wreath about her hair, then again, ornaments
+and a jacket on, and her hair neatly dressed with ribbons.
+At another time she had a silk shawl, a victorine around
+her neck, a small crucifix attached to a necklace, and little
+ribbons above the wrists. She had drab gloves on and her bed
+was nearly covered with books.</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding the alleged fasting, Sarah Jacob continued
+to improve in health.</p>
+
+<p>And now comes an astounding feature of this most remarkable<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span>
+case. The vicar became convinced that the instance was
+one of real abstinence. A little hysterical girl twelve years of
+age, by her perseverance in lying, had actually succeeded in
+inducing an educated gentleman to accept the truth of her
+statements! The following letter which was published on the
+19th of February, 1869, speaks for itself:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="center">"A STRANGE CASE.</p>
+
+<p>"To the Editor of the <i>Welshman</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"Sir: Allow me to invite the attention of your readers to a
+most extraordinary case. Sarah Jacob, a little girl twelve years
+of age, and daughter of Mr. Evan Jacob, Lletherneuadd, in this
+parish, has not partaken of a single grain of any kind of food
+whatever, during the last sixteen months. She did occasionally
+swallow a few drops of water during the first few months
+of this period; but now she does not even do that. She still
+looks pretty well in the face and continues in the possession of
+all her mental faculties. She is in this and several other respects,
+a wonderful little girl.</p>
+
+<p>"Medical men persist in saying that the thing is quite impossible,
+but all the nearest neighbors, who are thoroughly acquainted
+with the circumstances of the case, entertain no doubt
+whatever of the subject, and I am myself of the same opinion.</p>
+
+<p>"Would it not be worth their while for medical men to
+make an investigation into the nature of this strange case? Mr.
+Evan Jacob would readily admit into his house any respectable
+person who might be anxious to watch it and to see for himself.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I may add, that Lletherneuadd is a farm-house about a
+mile from New Inn, in this parish.</p>
+
+<div class="bk2">
+<p class="center">"Yours faithfully,<br /></p>
+<p class="td2">"<span class="smcap">The Vicar of Llanfihangel-ar-Arth</span>."</p></div></div>
+
+<p>The suggestions of the vicar relative to an investigation,
+were soon after afterwards acted upon by certain gentlemen of
+the neighborhood. A public meeting was called and a committee
+of watchers was appointed to be constantly in attendance
+in the room with Sarah Jacob, and to observe to the best
+of their ability, whether or not she took any food during the
+investigation. It was agreed that the watching was to continue
+for a fortnight.</p>
+
+<p>Prior to the beginning of this watching, no precautions
+were taken against food being conveyed into the room and concealed
+there. The parents actually debarred the watchers
+from touching the child's bed. The very first element of success
+was therefore denied, and no wonder that the whole affair
+was subsequently regarded as an absurdity. The watching
+consisted in two different men taking alternate watches from
+eight till eight. The watching to see whether the child partook
+of food, commenced on March 22d, and ended April 5th, 1869&mdash;a
+period of fourteen days.</p>
+
+<p>During the above fortnight, one of the watchers, in turn,
+was always close to her bed, and in her sight day and night,
+and at the time the bed was being made, which was generally
+every other morning, the four persons were always present and
+had every article thoroughly examined. The parents were
+allowed to go near the bed, as also was the little sister, six<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span>
+years old, who had been Sarah's constant companion and bed-fellow.</p>
+
+<p>On Wednesday, April 7th, 1869, a public meeting was
+held at the Eagle Inn, Llandyfeil, to hear the statements of
+the parents and of the several persons who had watched the
+child during the fourteen days. The parents briefly detailed
+the condition and symptoms of their daughter from the commencement
+of her illness. At no time during the whole fourteen
+days did the pulse ever reach above ninety per minute,
+although exceedingly changeable, as it always had been. The
+following evidence was received from the watchers, and it is
+<i>said</i> that their statements were duly verified on oath before a
+magistrate:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Watcher No. 1 said: I, Evan Edward Smith, watched Sarah
+Jacob for two consecutive nights, (<i>i. e.</i>, nights 22d and 23d of
+March) at the request of Mr. H. H. Davies, surgeon. The parents
+gave every facility to investigate the matter. I watched
+her with all possible care, and found nothing to suspect that
+food or drink was given her by foul means. I am quite sure
+she had nothing during my watch. I was dismissed on account
+of being suspected to doze on the second night.</p>
+
+<p>Watcher No. 2. This watcher watched Sarah Jacob for a
+whole fortnight, and found no indications that the child had
+anything to eat or drink. He was a college student, Daniel
+Harris Davies.</p>
+
+<p>Watcher No. 3. John Jones, a shopkeeper, gave similar
+evidence. He was a decided sceptic before he began watching,
+but after twelve days was thoroughly convinced of the fact that
+nothing in the shape of nourishment was given to the poor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span>
+child. He watched every movement of all the inmates, and
+found nothing that would lead him to suspect that any nourishment
+was given to the little girl.</p>
+
+<p>Watcher No. 4. James Harris Davies, a medical student,
+spoke in like manner, and was perfectly positive that nothing
+had been given to her during the fortnight he had watched
+there, with the exception of three drops of water, once, to
+moisten her lips with. He was as great a sceptic as any one
+before he began watching, but as he saw nothing to confirm his
+suspicions, he could conscientiously say that nothing had been
+given her during his watch.</p>
+
+<p>Watcher No. 5. Evan Davies, of Powel Castle, who only
+watched her for one day, gave similar evidence, but as he was
+a neighbour he was dismissed for a stranger.</p>
+
+<p>Watcher No. 6. Herbert Jones, watched only one day, and
+spoke in a similar manner, and was dismissed on account of
+his credulity.</p>
+
+<p>Watcher No. 7. Thomas Davies, who had been the greatest
+sceptic of all, was strongly convinced. He watched Sarah Jacob
+twelve days, and was quite positive that nothing could have
+been given her during his watch. He watched her with all
+possible care, and was very cautious to be in a prominent place,
+where Sarah Jacob's mouth was always in sight.</p>
+
+<p>Evidence, however, was given which went to show that the
+watching was very imperfectly performed; that occasionally
+the watchers left before their time had expired; that intoxicating
+liquors were taken by them to the house, and that one of
+them was drunk while there. It was also shown that the father
+and mother had free access to the bed, while the watchers were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span>
+absolutely prohibited from examining it. It is therefore with
+entire justification that Dr. Fowler states that the watching
+"was the greatest possible farce and mockery."</p>
+
+<p>After the report of the watchers the notoriety of Sarah Jacob
+of course became still greater; crowds came to visit her,
+and among others the Rev. Frederic Rowland Young went to see
+her, and made an unsuccessful effort to cure her by laying on
+of hands. When Dr. Fowler visited her, August 30th, 1869, on
+getting out at the nearest railway station, he was met by little
+boys bearing placards with the words "Fasting Girl," and
+"This is the shortest way to Llethernoryadd-ucha," on them.
+In his letter to the <i>Times</i>, giving an account of his visit, Dr.
+Fowler says:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"The first impression was most unfavorable, and to a medical
+man the appearances were most suspicious. The child was
+lying on a bed decorated as a bride, having around her head a
+wreath of flowers, from which was suspended a smart ribbon,
+the ends of which were joined by a small bunch of flowers, after
+the present fashion of ladies' bonnet strings. Before her, at
+proper reading distance, was an open Welsh book, supported
+by two other books on her body. The blanket covering was
+clean, tidy, and perfectly smooth. Across the fire-place, which
+was nearly opposite the foot of her bed, was an arrangement of
+shelves, well stocked with English and Welsh books, the gifts
+of various visitors to the house. The child is thirteen years of
+age, and is undoubtedly very pretty. Her face was plump, and
+her cheeks and lips of a beautiful rosy color. Her eyes were
+bright and sparkling, the pupils were very dilated, in a measure
+explicable by the fact of the child's head and face being shaded<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span>
+from the window-light by the projecting side of the cupboard
+bedstead. There was that restless movement and frequent
+looking out at the corners of the eyes so characteristic of
+simulative disease. Considering the lengthened inactivity of
+the girl, her muscular development was very good, and the
+amount of fat layer not inconsiderable. My friend stated
+that she looked even better than she did about a twelvemonth
+ago. There was a slight perspiration over the surface of the
+body. The pulse was perfectly natural, as were also the sounds
+of the lungs and heart, so far as I was enabled to make a
+stethoscopic examination. Having received permission to do
+this, I proceeded to make the necessary derangement of dress,
+when the girl went off into what the mother called a fainting fit.
+This consisted of nothing but a little and momentary hysterical
+crying and sobbing. The color never left the lips or cheeks. The
+pulse remained of the same power. Consciousness could have
+been but slightly diminished, inasmuch as on my then opening
+the eyelids I perceived a distinct upward and other movement
+of the eyeballs. Each percussion stroke of my examination,
+and even the pressure of the stethoscope, produced an expression
+of pain, which elicited a natural sympathy from the mother,
+and an assertion that a continuance of such examination would
+bring on further fits. On percussing the region of the stomach,
+I most distinctly perceived the sound of gurgling, which we
+know to be caused by the admixture of air and fluid in motion.
+The most positive assertion of the parents was subsequently
+made that saving a fortnightly moistening of her lips with
+cold water, the child had neither ate nor drank anything for the
+last twenty-three months. The whole region of the belly was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span>
+tympanitic, and the muscular walls of this cavity were tense
+and drum-like&mdash;a condition not infrequently concomitant of a
+well-known class of nervous disorders. The child's intellectual
+faculties and special senses were perfectly healthy. Before her
+illness she was very much devoted to religious reading. This
+devotion has lately considerably increased. She is a member
+of the Church of England, and has been confirmed."</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Fowler then adds some other interesting particulars, all
+going to show the impossibility of the girl's being the subject
+of any exhausting disease, or of even having been continuously
+in bed, as her parents asserted, for nearly two years; and then
+says:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"The whole case is in fact one of simulative hysteria, in a
+young girl having the propensity to deceive very strongly developed.
+Therewith may be probably associated the power or
+habit of prolonged fasting. Both patient and mother admitted
+the occasional occurrence of the choking sensation called
+<i>globus hystericus</i>."</p>
+
+<p>This letter excited renewed discussion in the newspapers,
+and a second public meeting was called to make arrangements
+for a second watching. At this meeting it was decided to bring
+down from Guy's Hospital, London, several trained nurses, who
+were to conduct the watching; and the following resolutions
+were adopted, as expressing the terms under which the inquiry
+was to be conducted:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>1. It would be advisable, before taking any steps in the
+matter, to obtain a written legal guarantee from the father of
+Sarah Jacob sanctioning the necessary proceedings. 2. That
+the duty of the nurses shall be to watch Sarah Jacob with a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span>
+view to ascertain whether she partakes of any kind of food, and
+at the end of a fortnight to report upon the case before the
+local committee in Carmarthenshire, and, if required, at Guy's
+Hospital. 3. That two nurses shall be constantly awake and
+on the watch in the girl's room, night and day. 4. It would be
+advisable for the nearest medical practitioner to watch the progress
+of the case; and it will be absolutely necessary for him
+to <i>be prepared against any serious symptoms of exhaustion, supervening
+on the strict enforcement of the watching, and to act according
+to his judgment</i>. 5. That the room in which the girl sleeps
+shall be bared of all unnecessary furniture, and all possible
+places in the room for the concealment of food shall be closed
+and kept under the continual scrutiny of the watchers. 6. That
+if considered desirable by the local medical practitioner, or by
+the nurses, the bedstead on which the girl now lies shall be replaced
+by a single iron one. 7. That the bed on which the
+parents now sleep, in Sarah Jacob's room, shall be given up
+absolutely to the nurses. 8. That the parents be not allowed
+to sleep in the same room as the girl; that if they cannot at all
+times be prevented from approaching her, they should be previously
+searched (their pockets and other recesses of clothing
+as well as the interior of their mouths); and that no wetted
+towels or other such articles be allowed to be used about the
+girl by the parents, or any other person save the nurses; that
+the children of the family, and in fact every other person whatever
+(except the nurses), have similar restraints put upon them.
+9. That the nurses have the sole management of preparing the
+room, bed, and patient, prior to the commencement of the
+watching. 10. That, as it is asserted the action of the bowels<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span>
+and bladder is entirely suspended, special attention must be
+directed to these organs.</p>
+
+<p>Four experienced women nurses were accordingly deputed
+from Guy's Hospital to take the entire charge of Sarah Jacob,
+and to watch her for fourteen days. They were instructed not
+to prevent her having food if she asked for it, but they were to
+see that she got none without their knowledge. On the 9th of
+December, 1869, at 4 <span class="smcapl">P.M.</span>, the room was cleared of people and
+the watching began.</p>
+
+<p>In the first place it was ascertained that the girl had repeated
+evacuations of urine, and once, at least, of f&aelig;ces.</p>
+
+<p>Gradually evidences of mental and physical disturbance began
+to appear. The watch was so closely kept that no food or
+drink reached the child, and she did not ask for any.</p>
+
+<p>"At 10 <span class="smcapl">P.M.</span>," to quote the language of the journal kept
+by the sister nurse, "she was restless and threw her arms about.
+She was very cold, and the nurses put warm flannels on her.
+This was the last day on which she passed urine."</p>
+
+<p>Thursday, December 16, 3 <span class="smcapl">A.M.</span>&mdash;She was rolling from one
+side of the bed to the other. At half-past three she wished
+the bed made, and they made it. She was looking very pale
+and anxious. Her eyes were sunk and her nose pinched, and
+the cheek bones were prominent. Her arms and hands were
+cold, her feet and legs were the same. Ann Jones, one of the
+nurses, says in her memoranda, "She was very restless and
+appeared to me to be sinking. Her lips were very dry, and
+her mouth seemed parched." The peculiar smell (the starvation
+smell) about the bed was so strong as to make the sister
+nurse quite ill.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>At 11 <span class="smcapl">A.M.</span>, the vicar saw her and told the parents that the
+child was gradually failing, and suggested to them the propriety
+of sending the nurses away and giving her a chance
+to obtain food, but they refused, saying that there was nothing
+to do but what the nurses were doing, and that they had seen
+her quite as weak before. The parents were urged by others
+to give up the fight by sending the nurses away, but they refused
+on the ground that want of food had nothing to do with
+the symptoms, and that she would not eat whether the nurses
+were there or not.</p>
+
+<p>Ann Jones subsequently testified before the coroner: "Before
+one and two o'clock on Thursday afternoon (Dec. 16), she
+kept talking to herself. I could not understand whether she
+was speaking Welsh or English. Up to that time I could understand
+her. She pointed her fingers at some books; I gave
+her one, but she took no notice of it; she was not able to read
+it. <i>Both parents were then told the girl was dying.</i>"</p>
+
+<p>Repeatedly they were begged to withdraw the nurses, and
+again and again they refused, saying there was no occasion&mdash;that
+she had often been in that way, that it was not from want
+of food, etc. The girl became weaker and weaker; low, muttering
+delirium ensued, and on the 17th of December, 1869, at
+about half-past three o'clock, <span class="smcapl">P.M.</span>, the "Welsh Fasting Girl"
+died, actually starved to death, in the middle of the nineteenth
+century and in one of the most Christian and civilized countries
+of the world!</p>
+
+<p>But this was not the end. Public opinion was much excited
+both against those who had sanctioned and conducted
+what appeared to have been a senseless and cruel experiment,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span>
+and against the father and mother who had wilfully and persistently
+refused to allow food to be given to the dying child.
+A coroner's inquest was held, and the coroner appears to have
+made a very satisfactory charge to the jury after the rendition
+of the testimony. He said there could be no doubt of the child
+having died of starvation, and that the responsibility rested
+with the father, who had knowingly and designedly failed to
+cause his child to take food. The mother was not responsible
+unless it could be shown that she had been given food for the
+child by the father, and had withheld it from her. It was marvellous,
+he said, how the father could have made out such a
+story&mdash;such a hideous mass of nonsense, as he had under oath
+attempted to impose on the jury.</p>
+
+<p>The jury deliberated for a quarter of an hour, and then returned
+a verdict of "Died from starvation, caused by negligence
+to induce the child to take food on the part of the
+father;" which constituted manslaughter.</p>
+
+<p>Evan Jacob was therefore arrested. But the Secretary of
+State for the Home Department took the matter up and determined
+that the proceedings should go farther than the local
+authorities intended. At first it was contemplated to indict
+the members of the General Committee for conspiracy, but it
+was finally concluded to include only the medical gentlemen who
+had accepted the responsibility of superintending the watching,
+as well as both parents of the deceased child.</p>
+
+<p>The initial proceeding took place before a full bench of
+magistrates, and continued eight days. The Crown and the accused
+had eminent counsel, and many witnesses were examined.
+At the conclusion of the inquiry the presiding magistrate<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span>
+announced that it had been determined by the court that no
+case had been made out against the physicians, who had not
+been shown to have undertaken any other duty than that of
+advising the nurses, and that it did not appear that their advice
+had been asked. As to the father and mother the court
+had decided to send them both for trial for manslaughter, at
+the next assizes. In due time they were arraigned, they
+pleaded not guilty, but after being defended by able counsel,
+the jury, after an absence of about half an hour, returned with
+a verdict of guilty against both the prisoners, but with a recommendation
+of the mother to the merciful consideration of
+the court, on the ground that she was under the control of her
+husband. The man protested his innocence, and the woman
+"buried her face in her shawl and wept bitterly."</p>
+
+<p>His Lordship, in passing sentence, said: "Prisoners at
+the bar, you have been found guilty of a most aggravated
+offence. I entirely concur with the verdict which the jury have
+given, and I shall act upon the recommendation which they
+have presented in favor of the female prisoner, the mother,
+though, I must say, that I cannot but feel that it is a greater
+crime in the mother than the father, since it is more contrary
+to the common nature of mothers, to neglect their children in
+the manner in which you have treated this unfortunate child.
+It is contrary to the nature, even, of a father. But I shall act
+upon the recommendation of the jury, upon the ground they
+have put forward, that you have been subject to the control of
+your husband more than has appeared from the evidence of
+the case. But the offence is, as I have said, a serious one, on
+this ground; that there can be no doubt that both of you have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span>
+persisted in this fraudulent deception, upon your neighbors,
+and upon the public, and that in order to carry out that fraudulent
+deception and to preserve yourselves from detection you
+were willing to risk the life of that child. The life of that
+child has been lost in that wicked experiment which you tried.
+Therefore, the sentence that I shall inflict on you, Evan Jacob,
+is, that you be imprisoned and kept at hard labor for twelve
+calendar months; and that upon you, Hannah Jacob, will be
+more lenient in consideration of the recommendation of the
+jury, and it is, that you be imprisoned and kept to hard labor
+for the period of six calendar months."</p>
+
+<p>Thus ended one of the most remarkable and interesting
+histories of human folly, credulity, and criminality which the
+present day has produced. Comment upon its teaching is
+scarcely necessary; but the thoughtful reader will not fail to
+perceive how important a bearing it has upon the whole subject
+of belief without full and free inquiry, and that how all
+the facts which science has gathered during ages of painful
+labor, go for naught, even with educated persons, when
+brought face to face with the false assertions of a hysterical
+girl, and of two ignorant and deceitful peasants. If there is
+any one thing we know, it is that there can be no force without
+the metamorphosis of matter of some kind. Here was a girl
+maintaining her weight&mdash;actually growing&mdash;her animal heat
+kept at its due standard, her mind active, her heart beating,
+her lungs respiring, her skin exhaling, her limbs moving whenever
+she wished them to move, and all, as very many persons
+supposed, without the ingestion of the material by which alone
+such things could be. And yet such is the tendency of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span>
+average human mind to be deceived, that it would be perfectly
+possible to re-enact in the city of New York the whole tragedy
+of Sarah Jacob, should ever a hysterical girl take it into
+head to do so; and there would not be wanting, even from
+among those who might read this history, individuals who would
+credit any monstrous declarations she might make. Even
+now in a little town in Belgium, an ecstatic girl is going
+through the same performance with extraordinary additions,
+and books are written by learned physicians and theologians,
+with the object of establishing the truth of her pretensions.
+To this most remarkable instance, and one other of similar
+though perhaps even more remarkable characteristic, the attention
+of the reader will presently be invited. But in view of
+these things one is almost tempted to say with Cardinal Carafa,
+"<i>Quandoquidem populus decipi vult, decipiatur</i>."</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> "De puella qu&aelig; sine cibo et potu vitam transigit." Parisiis Ann.
+MDXLII.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> "<span title="Parat&ecirc;r&ecirc;se&ocirc;n">&#928;&#945;&#961;&#945;&#964;&#951;&#961;&#8053;&#963;&#949;&#969;&#957;</span> sive observationum medicarum, rararum, novarum, admirabilium,
+et monstrosarum. Volumen, tomis septem de toto homine institutum."
+Lugduni 1606, p. 306.</p>
+<p>These cases are cited by Wanley in his "Wonders of the Little
+World," but I have taken care in most instances to refer to the originals,
+several of which are in my library.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> "Wonders of the Little World." London, 1806, p. 375.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> Opuscula Medica. Parisiis, 1639, pp. 64, 65, 66.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> Observationum et curationum chirurgicarum, centuria secunda. Genev&aelig;,
+1611, p. 116.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> Wonderful Characters: By Henry Wilson and James Caulfield. London.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> British Medical Journal, July 16, 1870.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> A complete History of the Welsh Fasting Girl (Sarah Jacob,) with
+Comments thereon, and Observations on Death from Starvation. London,
+1871.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="III" id="III"></a>III.</h2>
+
+<h3>ABSTINENCE FROM FOOD WITH STIGMATIZATION.</h3>
+
+<p>One hundred and fifty-three persons have at one time or
+another, according to Dr. Imbert-Gourbeyre,<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> received the
+stigmata; that is, been marked in a miraculous manner with
+the wounds received by Christ at the crucifixion. Of these,
+eight, are according to the same authority now living, and
+two assert that they do not eat. I propose to consider
+at some length the main points in the histories<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span>
+of these two, Palma d'Oria and Louise Lateau, and in so
+doing I shall avail myself of the works of those, who are firm
+believers in the miraculous interposition of God to produce the
+effects, of which they are said to be the subjects. These cases
+are very little known in this country. Instances of the kind
+are extremely rare among practical common sense nations, like
+those inhabiting the British Isles, and their descendants in
+America. Of the whole one hundred and fifty-three cases recorded
+by Dr. Imbert-Gourbeyre, but one&mdash;Jane Gray&mdash;was
+British, and hers is the most doubtful case in the list, for the
+fact rests only on the testimony of one Thomas Bourchier, an
+English minor brother, who asserts that she had the stigmata
+in the feet. Of the remainder, the very large majority are of
+Italy, and as Dr. Imbert-Gourbeyre says:</p>
+
+<p>"Quel pays fut jamais si fertile en miracles?"<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p>
+
+<p>To the account of a visit made to Oria for the purpose of
+studying the phenomena exhibited by Palma, made by Dr. Imbert-Gourbeyre,
+I am indebted for the following details:</p>
+
+<p>Palma, at the time of the visit in 1871, was sixty-six years
+old, hump-backed, thin, small, and with light, expressive eyes.
+For several years she had not left the house, and was, on account
+of her sufferings, scarcely able to walk. Occasionally,
+when she felt particularly well, she took a few steps about the
+room supported by a cane. In her youth she had been very
+strong and active.</p>
+
+<p>At the first interview, after some conversation in the course
+of which Palma declared that she had often seen Louise Lateau
+while in ecstasy, the doctor directed the conversation<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span>
+towards the subject of hallucination. While thus engaged and
+seated close to Palma, he felt her strike him gently on the
+arm, and at the same time saw the abb&eacute;, who had come with
+him, fall on his knees. He turned toward Palma; her eyes
+were closed, her hands clasped, her mouth wide open, and on
+her tongue he saw the host&mdash;the body of Christ. Immediately,
+he fell on his knees also, and worshipped it. Palma protruded
+her tongue still farther, as if she wanted to give him every opportunity
+of seeing that the host was really there; then she ate
+it, closed her mouth and remained perfectly quiet on the sofa
+upon which she was reclining. It was then almost four o'clock
+in the afternoon, the day was fading, the room was badly lit
+by a little window, high from the floor. The miraculous host
+appeared to him to be as white as wax, and somewhat thick.
+On account of the little light, and the short time that this extraordinary
+communion lasted, he was unable to determine
+whether or not it was marked according to the custom of the
+church.</p>
+
+<p>In regard to this wonderful event&mdash;that is, if it be not a fact
+viewed unequally&mdash;it is further to be said that Palma disclosed
+to Dr. Imbert-Gourbeyre, that two or three times, the
+holy element, which be it remembered is believed by the great
+majority of Christians to be the real body of Christ, was brought
+to her by the devil, and that then she refused it. Sometimes
+he had the figure of an angel, but she knew him by the sign of
+reprobation which he wore on his forehead&mdash;a little horn.
+Moreover she saw that the wicked creature hesitated, and was
+a little embarrassed. She intoned the <i>Gloria Patri</i>, and made
+the sign of the cross, and he instantly took flight and disappeared.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span>
+In order to ascertain what it all meant, her confessor
+forbade her to receive the miraculous communion for eight
+days. Hardly had that period expired when Jesus Christ himself
+brought her the communion. Before giving it to her he
+made her recite the <i>Gloria Patri</i> three times. Then he said to
+her, "Have I fled as the demon did? No. Therefore reassure
+yourself. It is really I."</p>
+
+<p>These miraculous circumstances had been going on for
+about two years when Dr. Imbert-Gourbeyre made his visit to
+Palma. Sometimes it was brought to her by Christ, as in the
+instance specified, or by some saint, as St. Peter, St. Vincent
+de Paul, St. Francis d'Assisi, in the company of her guardian
+angel, and other saints and angels. At other times it was brought
+by priests and confessors of the olden time, long since dead.</p>
+
+<p>An Italian bishop stated, that at the moment of the miraculous
+sacrament on one occasion, he had seen the host flying
+through the air before entering Palma's mouth, but the doctor
+questioned her attendant on this point, and she declared that
+she had not seen that, and she assured him that the host was
+never seen by any one till it rested on Palma's tongue. The
+doctor inclines to the belief that the attendant was right, but
+he states that nevertheless a French apostolic missionary had
+asserted that he had seen the same thing.</p>
+
+<p>Well, if the consecrated bread be really the body of Christ
+that was given for the salvation of the world, what horrible
+blasphemy to state such things of it, what vileness to believe
+them, what a barefaced imputation on the reason of man to
+spread these shocking details before him and ask him to accept
+them as true of the God he worships!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>After witnessing the communion, Dr. Imbert-Gourbeyre
+was requested to withdraw into the adjoining room, while
+Palma got ready for her other performances. In a few minutes
+he was informed that all was in order. One of the women
+went in first and returning immediately, the others were invited
+to enter. The stigmatization had already begun on the forehead.
+He saw a stream of blood flowing from the left frontal
+eminence along the side of the nose. A handkerchief was
+given to Palma; she held it to her nose for a moment and the
+h&aelig;morrhage soon stopped. He examined the blood and found
+that it did not differ in appearance, color or temperature from
+ordinary blood. He then examined the handkerchief, and besides
+numerous rotund spots he perceived other figures resembling
+hearts, with stains of blood proceeding from them, indicating
+the flames of love. All this appeared to him to be very
+extraordinary, for though he had often seen people bleed from
+the nose, he had never seen them bleed like that.</p>
+
+<p>After this incident Palma continued the performances&mdash;<i>actions
+de grace</i> he calls them&mdash;her hands clasped and her eyes
+closed. In the lower limbs, especially the left, there was a
+tremor like a nervous trembling which was soon quieted. After
+a few minutes she rubbed her hands together, made the
+sign of the cross and returned naturally to the conversation.
+He then examined her forehead and endeavored to ascertain
+where the blood had come from. The skin was intact without
+the least opening. She showed him above the right frontal eminence
+a hole in the cranium, from which at a former period,
+five little pieces of bone had been discharged. The opening
+was entirely covered over by the scalp, and he was surprised<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span>
+to find that there was no cicatrix. It was round, the end of
+his index finger entered it readily, and it was just such an
+opening as would have been produced by the crown of a trephine.
+At the time it was made, the skin opened to allow of
+the exit of the pieces of bone; then it closed without leaving
+the trace of a scar. It was the same with the stigmata.
+They closed at once without there being any marks to indicate
+the place whence the blood had flowed. This hole in the skull
+had been caused by some particular circumstances that no one
+was willing to reveal to him, but which he says are reported in
+the journal of the directors of this woman, and which will
+soon be published. Most medical men will come to the conclusion
+that it was due to caries and necrosis of the bone, of
+syphilitic origin.</p>
+
+<p>During another visit Palma told Dr. Imbert-Gourbeyre
+that she had eaten nothing for seven years, but that she was
+obliged to drink frequently on account of the great internal
+heat, which like a fire consumed her. She then drank in his
+presence two carafes of water at one time, and the doctor
+states that "this water became so hot in her stomach that it
+was vomited boiling. She also had often ejected from her
+mouth oil, and another fluid of a balsamic character, in which,
+on standing for some time, bodies resembling the consecrated
+host were formed."</p>
+
+<p>The doctor then relates the following details, which I give
+in his own words, in further illustration of the character of his
+mental organization and of the pretensions put forth by the
+woman, whose word seems to have been sufficient to convince
+him of anything at all, no matter how preposterous. Four years<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span>
+previously he had been so unfortunate as to lose by death his
+eldest child:</p>
+
+<p>"A year after his death, I had met a woman of great
+renown for piety, and who was even regarded as a receiver of
+celestial communications. I had commended my poor Joseph
+to her. Some time after she assured me that my son was
+saved, and that he was in paradise. She declared that in a vision
+she had seen him near our Lord; he was happy. Various circumstances,
+which it is useless to mention here, had caused me
+to believe in the truth of this asserted revelation. Being in
+Oria, I wished to have as much certainty as possible in regard
+to the matter, and as I knew that Palma was in spiritual communication
+with many pious souls scattered over the earth, I
+said to her in the course of our conversation, 'tell me, Palma,
+do you know M. &mdash;&mdash; de X&mdash;&mdash;,' giving her the baptismal
+name of the woman in question. 'No sir,' she answered. I
+then related to her my history in detail, taking care not to ask
+her opinion in advance, although I felt sure that she would
+explain the thing to me. She listened with the utmost attention
+to the superioress who translated my words, and when
+Mother Becaud came to say that the woman had had a vision of
+my son, and that he was in paradise, Palma stretched out her
+arm in a solemn manner as a sign of negative, and said to me,
+'He is saved, but he is still in purgatory.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Is it possible? Palma,' I cried, profoundly moved: 'Since you
+tell me this, you are in conscience bound to get him out of that
+place of expiation as soon as possible, and I commend him immediately
+to your prayers.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Yes, sir,' she said, 'I will pray for him, and when I am<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span>
+sure of his deliverance, I will send you word by Father de
+Pace.'</p>
+
+<p>"The following morning at my visit I again commended my
+poor child to Palma, and on the following Friday evening on
+taking leave of her, I asked if she had prayed that morning for
+my son, 'No sir,' she answered. 'I will only do so on the day of
+All Saints.' 'Then,' said I to Palma, 'will you allow madame
+the superioress to take the answer?' 'Very willingly,' said the
+seeress. On the 7th of November, I received at Nice the
+following letter:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"'<span class="smcap">Sir</span>,</p>
+
+<p>"'I have fulfilled the promise which I made to you in
+accordance with your wish to go to Palma on All Saints Day,
+in order to ascertain whether or not your wishes in regard to
+your son had been granted. That good soul assured me twice
+that he had gone to heaven that very morning, God be praised
+a thousand times!</p>
+
+<p>"'Thus sir, I have done what I could for your consolation.</p>
+
+<div class="bk2"><p class="center">"'I have the honor to be, etc.</p>
+<p class="td2">"'Sister Marie Becaud.'</p></div></div>
+
+<p>"This letter was post marked at Oria, November 2d."</p>
+
+<p>I should not venture to insult the intelligence of the reader
+with these idiotic details but for the reasons stated, and additionally,
+that they carry conviction with them to thousands of
+minds, honest doubtless, but which are accustomed to grovel
+in superstition, and falsehood, which they are unable to test by
+right standards.</p>
+
+<p>A phase in Palma's spiritual pathology has been alluded to
+cursorily, but has not yet been considered with the fulness<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span>
+proper in connection with stigmatization, and that is the occurrence
+of h&aelig;morrhagic spots on various parts of her body, and
+which she so managed as to convey the idea that they were
+symbolical of various holy things. On the back of her hand
+she convinced Dr. Imbert-Gourbeyre that she bled in the
+shape of the cross, and he gives a wood-cut representing a
+cross on the dorsum of the hand, a little above the space between
+the first and second fingers. This is surrounded by
+other rectilinear figures. On her breast and back, other figures
+were obtained by placing handkerchiefs on the parts. The
+doctor thus procured several mementoes of his visit, in the
+shape of pieces of linen stained with spots of blood somewhat
+resembling hearts, with flames coming out of them, suns,
+roses, crosses, etc. He gives several plates in his book representing
+these figures, of the reality of the miraculous formation
+of which he has not the slightest doubt.</p>
+
+<p>Another phenomenon has also been mentioned incidentally,
+and that is the intense heat which Palma declared she felt, and
+which the doctor refers to as the "divine fire." He had
+brought with him from Paris, a thermometer to use in determining
+the extraordinary temperature of this fire. He
+examined her with this instrument while she felt this divine
+fire, but failed to find any abnormal increase; her pulse at the
+time was 72. "I made this experiment," he says, "to satisfy
+my scientific conscience, [God save the mark!] but I ought to
+say that I was ashamed of myself for presuming to measure
+this divine fire by such an instrument." He is right, science is
+not for him, or those like him.</p>
+
+<p>On one occasion while Palma was in ecstasy, Antonietta,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span>
+who was near her, laid bare her chest a little, and cried with
+enthusiasm, "she is burning!" Dr. Imbert-Gourbeyre approached
+and smelt something like the burning of linen.
+The dress was opened and her chemise was found to be burnt
+on the left side just over the collar bone, and immediately below
+this, scorched in the shape of "a magnificent emblem representing
+a monstrance. The fire was invisible, but its traces
+were very evident."</p>
+
+<p>In a note he states that it was affirmed that Palma's temperature
+on similar occasions had reached 100&deg; centigrade, (212&deg;
+Fahrenheit) a fact which he does not doubt, although his thermometer
+did not show it. "That her chemise," he says, "burnt
+by invisible fire, which escaped the thermometer, was more extraordinary
+than if the instrument had indicated a temperature
+of 100&deg;."</p>
+
+<p>I shall not stop now to comment further on the circumstances
+detailed by Dr. Imbert-Gourbeyre, and of which I have
+cited but a small part. I will only say at present that science
+and common sense would conclude in regard to Palma d'Oria,</p>
+
+<p>1st. That she had probably at a former period contracted
+syphilis.</p>
+
+<p>2d. That she was strongly hysterical.</p>
+
+<p>3d. That she was the subject of purpura h&aelig;morrhagica.</p>
+
+<p>4th. That she was a most unmitigated humbug and liar.</p>
+
+<p>And now we come to the consideration of a case of stigmatization
+which has greatly stirred both the theological and the
+scientific world of Europe&mdash;that of Louise Lateau&mdash;and here
+again I shall draw largely, though by no means exclusively, from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span>
+the works of the believers in the miraculous production of the
+phenomena manifested.<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></p>
+
+<p>Louise Lateau was born at Bois-d'Haine, a small village in
+Belgium, on the 30th of January, 1850. She was reared in the
+utmost poverty, was chlorotic, and did not menstruate till she was
+eighteen years old. She loved solitude and silence, and when
+not engaged in work&mdash;and she does not appear to have labored
+much&mdash;she spent her time in meditation and prayer. She was
+subject to paroxysms of ecstasy, during which, as many other
+ecstasies, she spoke very edifying things, of charity, poverty, and
+the priesthood. She saw St. Ursula, St. Roch, St. Theresa,
+and the Holy Virgin. Persons who saw her in these states declared
+that, while lying on the bed, her whole body was raised
+up more than a foot high, the heels alone being in contact with
+the bed.</p>
+
+<p>The stigmatization ensued very soon after these seizures.
+On a Friday she bled from the left side of her chest. On the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span>
+following Friday this flow was renewed, and in addition, blood
+escaped from the dorsal surfaces of both feet; and on the third
+Friday, not only did she bleed from the side and feet, but also
+from the dorsal and palmar surface of both hands. Every succeeding
+Friday the blood flowed from these places, and finally
+other points of exit were established on the forehead and between
+the shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>At first these bleedings only took place at night, but after
+two or three months they occurred in the daytime, and were accompanied
+by paroxysms of ecstasy, during which she was insensible
+to all external impressions, and acted the passion of
+Jesus and the crucifixion.</p>
+
+<p>M. Warlomont, being commissioned by the Royal Academy
+of Medicine of Belgium to examine Louise Lateau, went to her
+house, accompanied by several friends, and made a careful examination
+of her person. At that time, Friday morning at six
+o'clock, the blood was flowing freely from all the stigmata. In
+a few moments the sacrament would be brought to her, and
+then the second act of the drama would begin. The scene that
+followed can be best described in M. Warlomont's own words:</p>
+
+<p>"It is a quarter-past six. 'Here comes the communion,'
+said M. Niels [a priest], 'kneel down.' Louise fell on her knees
+on the floor, closed her eyes and crossed her hands, on which
+the communion-cloth was extended. A priest, followed by several
+acolytes, entered; the penitent put out her tongue, received
+the holy wafer, and then remained immovable in the attitude
+of prayer.</p>
+
+<p>"We observed her with more care than seemed to have been
+hitherto given to her at similar periods. Some thought that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span>
+she was simply in a state of meditation, from which she would
+emerge in the course of half an hour or so. But it was a mistake.
+Having taken the communion, the penitent went into a
+special state. Her immobility was that of a statue, her eyes
+were closed; on raising the eyelids the pupils were seen to be
+largely dilated, immovable, and apparently insensible to light.
+Strong pressure made upon the parts in the vicinity of the stigmata
+caused no sensation of pain, although a few moments before
+they were exquisitely tender. Pricking the skin gave no
+evidence of the slightest sensibility. A limb, on being raised,
+offered no resistance, and sank slowly back to its former position.
+An&aelig;sthesia was complete, unless the cornea remained
+still impressionable. The pulse had fallen from 120 to 100
+pulsations. At a given moment I raised one of the eyelids, and
+M. Verriest quickly touched the cornea. Louise at once seemed
+to recover herself from a sound sleep, arose and walked to a
+chair, upon which she seated herself. 'This time,' I said, 'we
+have wakened her.' 'No,' said M. Niels, looking at his watch,
+'it was time for her to awake.'"</p>
+
+<p>She remained conscious; the blood still continued to flow;
+the an&aelig;sthesia had ceased, her pulse rose to 120, and at the
+end of half an hour she was herself. "Our first visit ended
+here. At half-past eleven we made another. The poor child
+had resumed her attitude of extreme suffering, against which
+she contended with all the energy that remained to her. The
+wounds in the hands still continued to bleed. M. Verriest auscultated
+with care the lungs, heart, and great vessels, and found
+the <i>bruit de souffle</i>, which he had detected in the morning at the
+apex of the heart and over the carotids. The handle of a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span>
+spoon pressed against the velum, the base of the tongue, and
+the pharynx, provoked no effort at vomiting. The glasses of
+our spectacles, as they came in contact with the air expired,
+were covered with vapor. As the patient appeared to suffer
+from our presence, we went away.</p>
+
+<p>"We made our third visit at two o'clock. There were still
+fifteen minutes before the beginning of the ecstatic crisis, which
+always took place punctually at a quarter past two and ended
+at about half past four. The pupils at this time were slightly
+contracted, the eyelids were almost entirely closed; the eyes,
+looking at nothing, were veiled from our view. We tried in
+vain to attract her attention; her mind was otherwise engaged,
+and her pains were evidently becoming more intense. At exactly
+a quarter past two her eyes became fixed in a direction
+above and to the right. The ecstasy had begun.</p>
+
+<p>"The time had now come to introduce those who were
+prompted by curiosity. This could now be done without inconvenience,
+for the ecstatic, for the ensuing two hours, would
+be lost to the appreciation of what might be passing around
+her. The room crowded, could hold about ten persons, but
+enough were allowed to enter to make the total twenty-five.
+These placed themselves in two ranks, of which the front one
+kneeling, allowed the rear ones to see all that was going on.
+All this was done under the direction of M. le Cur&eacute;, who took
+every pains to give us a good view of what was going to
+happen.</p>
+
+<p>"Louise was seated on the edge of her chair; her body,
+inclined forward, seemed to wish to follow the direction of her
+eyes, which did not look, but were fixed on vacancy. Her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span>
+eyes were opened to their fullest extent, of a dull, lustreless
+appearance, turned above and to the right, and of an absolute
+immobility. A few workings of the lids were now observed
+and became more frequent if the eyelids were touched. The
+pupils, largely dilated, showed very little sensibility to light,
+and all that remained of vision was shown by slight winking
+when the hand was suddenly brought close to the eyes. The
+whole face lacked expression. At certain moments, either
+spontaneously or as a consequence of divers provocations, a
+light smile, to which the muscles of the face generally did not
+contribute, wandered over her lips. Then the face resumed
+its primitive expression, and thus she remained for the half-hour
+which constituted the 'first station.'</p>
+
+<p>"The 'second station' was that of genuflection. It had
+failed at one time, but had again appeared. The young girl
+fell on her knees, clasped her hands, and remained for about a
+quarter of an hour in the attitude of contemplation. Then she
+arose and again resumed her sitting posture.</p>
+
+<p>"The 'third station' began at three o'clock. Louise inclined
+herself a little forward, raised her body slowly, and
+then extended herself at full length, face downward, on the
+floor. There was neither rigidity nor extreme precipitation;
+nothing in fact, calculated to produce injuries. The knees
+first supported her body, then it rested on these and the
+elbows, and finally her face was brought in actual close contact
+with the tiled floor. At first the head rested on the left arm,
+but very soon the patient made a quick and sudden movement,
+and the arms were extended from the body in the form of a
+cross. At the same time the feet were brought together so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span>
+that the dorsum of the right was in contact with the sole of the
+left foot. This position did not vary for an hour and a half.
+When the end of the crisis approached, the arms were brought
+close to the sides of the body, then suddenly the poor girl rose
+to her knees, her face turns to the wall, her cheeks become
+colored, her eyes have regained their expression, her countenance
+expands, and the ecstasy is at an end."</p>
+
+<p>Further particulars are given, and an apparatus was constructed
+and applied to Louise's hand and arm so as to prevent
+any external excitation of the h&aelig;morrhage. It was apparently
+shown that there was no such interference, for the
+blood began to flow at the usual time on Friday.</p>
+
+<p>In addition to the stigmata and the paroxysms of ecstasy,
+Louise declared that she did not sleep, had eaten or drank
+nothing for four years, had had no f&aelig;cal evacuation for three
+years and a half, and that the urine was entirely suppressed.</p>
+
+<p>M. Warlomont examined the blood and products of respiration
+chemically, and satisfied himself of their normal character,
+except that the former contained an excessive amount of
+white corpuscles.</p>
+
+<p>When being closely interrogated, Louise admitted that,
+though she did not sleep, she had short periods of forgetfulness
+at night. On M. Warlomont suddenly opening a cupboard in
+her room, he found it to contain fruit and bread, and her chamber
+communicated directly with a yard at the back of the
+house. It was therefore perfectly possible for her to have
+slept, eaten, defecated, and urinated, without any one knowing
+that she did so.</p>
+
+<p>The conclusions arrived at by M. Warlomont were, that the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span>
+stigmatizations and ecstasies of Louise Lateau were real and to
+be explained upon well-known physiological and pathological
+principles, that she "worked, and dispensed heat, that she lost
+every Friday a certain quantity of blood by the stigmata, that
+the air she expired contained the vapor of water and carbonic
+acid, that her weight had not materially altered since she had
+come under observation. She consumes carbon and it is not
+from her own body that she gets it. Where does she get it
+from? Physiology answers, 'She eats.'"</p>
+
+<p>Relative to the assumed abstinence in the cases of Palma
+d'Oria, Louise Lateau and other subjects of ecstasy and stigmata,
+it is not necessary, in view of the remarks already made
+on this subject in a previous chapter, to devote further consideration
+to it here. The conclusion arrived at by M. Warlomont
+is the only one which science can tolerate. Should Louise
+Lateau or Palma d'Oria ever be subjected to as close watching
+as was the poor little Welsh Fasting Girl, Sarah Jacob, it
+will certainly terminate as badly for them as for her, unless
+they yield to the demands of nature and take the food which
+the organism requires.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> Les Stigmatis&eacute;es; Palma d'Oria, etc. 2d Edition, Paris, 1873, p. 263.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> Op. cit., t. ii.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> For the theological view of this remarkable case the reader is referred
+to the following works, a part only of those written in support of her pretensions.
+"Louise Lateau de Bois-d'Haine, sa vie, ses extases, ses stigmates:
+&eacute;tude M&eacute;dicale," par le Dr. Lefebvre, Louvain, 1873. "Les stigmatis&eacute;es;
+Louise Lateau, etc.," par le Docteur A. Imbert-Gourbeyre, Paris, 1873. "Biographie
+de Louise Lateau," par H. Van Looy, Tournai, Paris and Leipzig,
+1874. "Louise Lateau de Bois-d'Haine etc.," par le Dr. A. Rohling, Paris,
+1874. "Louise Lateau, ihr Wunderleben u.s.w.," Von Paul Majunke, Berlin,
+1875.
+</p><p>
+Among the treatises in which the miracle is denied, and the phenomena attributed
+to either disease or fraud are; "Louise Lateau; Rapport M&eacute;dical
+sur la stigmatis&eacute;e de Bois-d'Haine, fait &agrave; l'acad&eacute;mie royale de m&eacute;decine de
+Belgique," par le Dr. Warlomont, Bruxelles and Paris, 1875. "Science et
+miracle, Louise Lateau, ou la stigmatis&eacute;e Belge," par le Dr. Bourneville,
+Paris, 1875. "Les Miracles," par M. Virchow, Revue des cours scientifiques,
+January 23rd 1875.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="IV" id="IV"></a>IV.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE BROOKLYN CASE.</h3>
+
+<p>For several years past there have been rumors more or less
+definite in character that a young lady in Brooklyn was not
+only living without food, but was possessed of some mysterious
+faculty by which she could foretell events, read communications
+without the aid of the eyes, and accurately describe occurrences
+in distant places, through clairvoyance or whatever other
+name may be applied to the influence.</p>
+
+<p>Finally, in the <i>New York Herald</i> of October 20th, 1878,
+appeared an account, headed "Life without Food. An Invalid
+Lady who for fourteen years has lived without nourishment."
+As this account is apparently authentic, and as the statements
+made have never been contradicted, I do not hesitate to quote
+from it. Some of the letters which have appeared in response
+to a proposition I offered, and to which fuller reference will
+presently be made, have accused me of dragging the young lady
+before the public. It will be seen, however, that her friends
+and physicians are responsible for all the publicity given to the
+case.</p>
+
+<p>Leaving out of consideration for the present the alleged
+marvellous endowments of this young lady, as regards seeing
+without her eyes, second sight, etc., I quote from the <i>Herald</i>
+the essential points relative to her clinical history and abstinence
+from food:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"In a modest, secluded house at the corner of Myrtle
+Avenue and Downing Street, Brooklyn, lives an invalid lady
+afflicted with paralysis, with a history so remarkable and extraordinary
+that, notwithstanding it is vouched for by physicians
+of standing, it is almost incredible. It is claimed that for a
+period of nearly fourteen years she has lived absolutely without
+food or nourishment of any kind. The case has been kept by
+the family of the patient a well guarded secret, it having led
+them to a strict seclusion as the only means of protection
+against the visits of the curious and incredulous.</p>
+
+<p>"The name of the remarkable person is Miss Mollie Fancher.
+To the half dozen medical gentlemen who have seen and attended
+her, her case is inexplicable. To learn the history of
+the strange case a <i>Herald</i> reporter yesterday called on several
+persons familiar with the facts. The first person seen was Dr.
+Ormiston, of No. 74 Hanson Place, Brooklyn, who attended
+her. He said:&mdash;'It seems incredible, but from everything I
+can learn Mollie Fancher never eats. The elder Miss Fancher,
+her aunt, who takes care of her, is a lady of the highest intelligence.
+She was at one time quite wealthy, and she has at
+present a comfortable income. I have every reason to believe
+that her statements are in every detail reliable. During a
+dozen visits to the sick chamber I have never detected evidence
+of the patient having eaten a morsel.'"</p>
+
+<p>After interviewing a lady intimate with the family, the reporter
+sought out Dr. Speir, the attending physician of the
+patient, and thus details his experience with that gentleman:</p>
+
+<p>"Dr. Speir was found in his comfortable little office, and the
+errand of the writer made known:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span>&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"'Is it true, Doctor, that a patient of yours has lived for fourteen
+years without taking food?'</p>
+
+<p>"'If you refer to Miss Fancher, yes. She became my patient
+in 1864. Her case is a most remarkable one.'</p>
+
+<p>"'But has she eaten nothing during all these years?'</p>
+
+<p>"'I can safely say she has not.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Are the family also willing to vouch for the truth of this
+extraordinary statement?'</p>
+
+<p>"'You will find them very reticent to newspaper men and to
+strangers generally. I do not believe any food&mdash;that is, solids&mdash;ever
+passed the woman's lips since her attack of paralysis,
+consequent upon her mishap. As for an occasional teaspoonful
+of water or milk, I sometimes force her to take it by using
+an instrument to pry open her mouth, but that is painful to
+her. As early as 1865 I endeavored to sustain life in this way,
+for I feared that, in obedience to the universal law of nature,
+she would die of gradual inanition or exhaustion, which I
+thought would sooner or later ensue; but I was mistaken.
+The case knocks the bottom out of all existing medical theories,
+and is, in a word, miraculous.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Did you ever,' asked the reporter, 'make an experiment
+to satisfy your professional accuracy in regard to her abstinence?'</p>
+
+<p>"'Several times I have given her emetics on purpose to discover
+the truth; but the result always confirmed the statement
+that she had taken no food. It sounds strangely, but it is so.
+I have taken every precaution against deception, sometimes
+going into the house at eleven or twelve o'clock at night, without
+being announced, but have always found her the same, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span>
+lying in the same position occupied by her for the entire period
+of her invalidity. The springs of her bedstead are actually
+worn out with the constant pressure. My brethren in the
+medical profession at first were inclined to laugh at me, and
+call me a fool and spiritualist when I told them of the long
+abstinence and keen mental powers of my interesting patient.
+But such as have been admitted to see her are convinced.
+These are Dr. Ormiston, Dr. Elliott and Dr. Hutchison, some
+of the best talent in the city, who have seen and believed.'"</p>
+
+<p>And then the following account is given of the accident from
+which the young lady suffered, and to which the remarkable
+phenomena she is said to exhibit are ascribed:</p>
+
+<p>"The story of Miss Fancher's accident and its melancholy
+consequences is quite affecting. It is collected from the various
+statements given by half a dozen friends of the family to
+the <i>Herald</i> reporter. Interwoven with it is a thread of romance,
+a tale of early love and courtship, of a life embittered
+by a cruel accident, of patient waiting, and a final release of
+the suitor from his engagement to marry another.</p>
+
+<p>"Mary's parents live in a sumptuous dwelling on Washington
+Avenue, Brooklyn, and were reported to be wealthy. Their
+favorite daughter Mollie, as she was called, was sent to Prof.
+West's High School in Brooklyn at an early age, and here
+developed many brilliant qualities of mind and heart, which
+augured well for her future. At seventeen she was pretty,
+petite and well cultivated. As a member of the Washington
+Avenue Baptist Sunday School, she met and learned to love a
+classmate, named John Taylor. An engagement followed the
+intimacy of the Sunday School class, and the young people<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span>
+looked forward with buoyant spirits to the bright life so soon
+to dawn upon them.</p>
+
+<p>"But fate decreed differently. While getting off a Fulton
+Street car one day in 1864, on her return from school, the
+young lady slipped and fell backward. Her skirt caught on
+the step unseen by the conductor, who started the car on its
+way again. The poor girl was dragged some ten or fifteen
+yards before her cries were heard and the brake applied. When
+picked up she was insensible and was carried, suffering intense
+agony from an injured spine, to her home near by. Forty-eight
+hours afterward she was seized with a violent spasm which
+lasted for over two days. Then came a trance, when the sufferer
+grew cold and rigid, with no evidence of life beyond a
+warm spot under the left breast, where feeble pulsations of her
+heart were detected by Dr. Speir. Only this gentleman believed
+she was alive, and it was due to his constant assertion of
+the girl's ultimate recovery that Miss Fancher was not buried.
+Despite the best medical help and the application of restoratives,
+no change was brought about in the patient's condition
+until the tenth week, when the strange suspension of life ceased
+and breath was once more inhaled and breathed forth from her
+lungs.</p>
+
+<p>"To their dismay the doctors then found that Mollie had lost
+her sight and the power of deglutition, the latter affliction rendering
+it impossible for her to swallow food or even articulate
+by the use of tongue or lip. Previous to her trance a moderate
+quantity of food had been given her each day; but since then
+she has not taken a mouthful of life-sustaining food. Spasms
+and trances alternated with alarming frequency since Miss<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span>
+Fancher was first attacked. First her limbs only became rigid
+and disturbed at the caprice of her strange malady; but as
+time passed her whole frame writhed as if in great pain, requiring
+to be held by main force in order to remain in the bed.
+She could swallow nothing, and lay utterly helpless until
+moved."</p>
+
+<p>In the <i>Sun</i>, of November 24th, 1878, a fuller account of this
+young lady was given, mainly however, in regard to her "clairvoyant,"
+or "second-sight" power. Relative to her abstinence
+from food, I quote the following conversation between the reporter
+and Dr. Speir.</p>
+
+<p>"'Is it true that she has not partaken of food in all these
+thirteen years?'</p>
+
+<p>"'No: I cannot say that she has not; I have not been constantly
+with her for thirteen years; she may have taken food
+in my absence. Her friends have used every device to make
+her take nourishment. Food has been forced upon her, and
+artificial means have been resorted to that it might be carried
+to her stomach. Nevertheless, the amount in the aggregate
+must have been very small in all these years.'</p>
+
+<p>"'You have considered the case of such extraordinary importance
+as to take many physicians to see it?'</p>
+
+<p>"'I have, and it has excited very much of attention. I have
+letters about it from far and near, and the medical journals
+have asked for information.'"</p>
+
+<p>And this with Dr. Ormiston:</p>
+
+<p>"Dr. Robert Ormiston, who has been one of Miss Fancher's
+physicians from the first, who has seen her constantly in all the
+different conditions of her system, said yesterday that he was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span>
+convinced that there could be no deception. He could find
+no motive for it, and he did not believe that she had attempted
+it. As to her not partaking of food, he had with Dr. Speir
+made tests that satisfied him that she ate no more than she pretended
+to, and in the aggregate it had not, in all these years,
+amounted to more than the amount eaten at a single meal by a
+healthy man. Dr. Ormiston narrated many curious incidents
+of the girl's illness, and verified the facts of her physical condition
+as narrated elsewhere."</p>
+
+<p>In order that no injustice may be done to these gentlemen,
+I quote the following from the <i>Sun</i> of November 26th:</p>
+
+<p>"Dr. R. Fleet Speir, one of Miss Fancher's physicians,
+smiled last evening when the <i>Sun</i> reporter asked him what he
+thought of Dr. Hammond's opinions on the case. 'I probably
+have just as high an opinion of Dr. Hammond's opinions
+as Dr. Hammond has of mine,' he said. 'My opinion on the
+case of Miss Fancher I have always refused to give to any one.
+When I first took the case, years ago, I told the family that I
+would not give them an opinion on it; that I would do what
+I could with it, and that I hoped to bring about a cure. I do
+not believe in clairvoyance or second sight, or anything of the
+kind. I think I stand with the most rigid school on that subject.'</p>
+
+<p>"'But do you think Miss Fancher deceives or endeavors
+to?'</p>
+
+<p>"The Doctor smiled again. 'Now I do not want you to interview
+me on that. My theory has along been to do nothing
+to irritate my patient; I humored her, and have endeavored in
+that way to get her confidence, to get complete control of her,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span>
+if possible. In that way I may get her mind diverted, and by
+and by get her out of bed. I have hoped to see her cured. I
+do not see what earthly good a scientific investigation would
+do her. On the contrary, it would harm her. Put a relay of
+physicians to watch her, and she would undoubtedly do her
+best to beat them. She would hold out against them, and
+likely as not die.'</p>
+
+<p>"Dr. Robert Ormiston said that he thought that the Brooklyn
+physicians knew quite as much about the case as their New
+York brethren, and that their opinions were of as much weight.
+'It has become a most interesting case from a medical standpoint,
+because during her long illness, she has gone through all
+the different phases of hysteria that have heretofore been observed
+in many different cases. I think I am correct in this
+statement.'"</p>
+
+<p>From all that can be ascertained therefore, it appears that
+the young lady in question received a severe injury to the
+spinal cord, in consequence of which she became paralyzed in
+the lower extremities, in which members contractions also took
+place. It is probable also that the great sympathetic nerve and
+brain were involved in the injury.</p>
+
+<p>Confined to her bed, her bodily temperature being low, and
+passing a good of her time in trances or periods of insensibility,
+the requirements of the system as regarded food would necessarily
+be limited. But this is the most that can be said. She
+<i>did</i> breathe, her heart <i>did</i> beat, she required <i>some</i> bodily heat,
+and the various other functions of her organism could not have
+been maintained without the expenditure of matter of some kind.
+During abstinence from food the body itself is consumed for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span>
+these purposes, and there being no renovation, no supplies
+from without, it loses weight with every instant of time until
+death finally ensues. An emaciated person can withstand this
+drain less effectually than one who is stout and fat.</p>
+
+<p>Again, it is said that the food taken by Miss Fancher was at
+once rejected. That it was <i>all</i> rejected, is in the highest degree
+improbable; a portion remained, and this portion, small
+as it was, did good service when very little was required.</p>
+
+<p>Another point: that Miss Fancher was hysterical admits of
+no doubt. Hysteria is a disease as much in some cases beyond
+the control of the patient as inflammation of the brain or any
+other disease. A proclivity to simulation and deception is just
+as much a symptom of hysteria as pain is of pleurisy. To say,
+therefore, that she simulated abstinence and deceived us to
+the quantity of food she took, is no imputation on her honesty,
+or questioning her possession of as high a degree of honor and
+trust, as can be claimed by any one. Other women naturally
+as moral as she, have under the influence of hysteria perpetrated
+the grossest deceptions, and they are not unfrequently
+manifested in the very same way that hers apparently are.
+Her case is by no means an isolated one; it is not such as has
+never been seen before; it does not "knock the bottom out of
+all existing medical theories, and is in a word miraculous," as
+one of the physicians is reported to have said. On the contrary,
+similar ones are often met with as we have seen, and the
+following which I quote from Millingen,<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> is so like it in many
+respects, that the two might have been formed after a common<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span>
+model, as in fact they were, just as two or more cases of pneumonia
+follow a well defined type.</p>
+
+<p>"Another wonderful instance of the same kind is that of
+Janet McLeod, published by Dr. McKenzie. She was at the
+time thirty-three years of age, unmarried, and from the age of
+fifteen had had various attacks of epilepsy, which had produced
+so rigid a lock-jaw that her mouth could rarely be
+forced open by any contrivance; she had lost very nearly the
+power of speech and deglutition, and with this all desire to eat
+or drink. Her lower limbs were contracted towards her body;
+she was entirely confined to her bed, and had periodical discharges
+of blood from the lungs, which were chiefly thrown out
+by the nostrils. During a few intervals of relaxation she was
+prevailed upon with great difficulty to put a few crumbs of
+bread comminuted in the hand, into her mouth, together with a
+little water sucked from her one hand, and, in one or two instances,
+a little gruel, but even in these attempts almost the
+whole was rejected. On two occasions also, after a total abstinence
+of many months, she made signs of wishing to drink
+some water, which was immediately procured for her. On the
+first trial the whole seemed to be returned from the mouth, but
+she was greatly refreshed in having it rubbed upon the throat.
+On the second occasion she drank off a pint at once, but could
+not be prevailed upon to drink any more, although her father
+had now fixed a wedge between her teeth. With these exceptions,
+however, she seemed to have passed upwards of four
+years without either liquids or solids of any kind, or even an
+appearance of swallowing; she lay for the most part like a log
+of wood, with a pulse scarcely perceptible for feebleness, but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span>
+distinct and regular. Her countenance was clear and pretty
+fresh; her features neither disfigured nor sunk; her bosom
+round and prominent, and her limbs not emaciated. Dr. McKenzie
+watched her, with occasional visits, for eight or nine
+years, at the close of which period she seemed to be a little
+improved."</p>
+
+<p>This account, like that given of Miss Fancher, tells us nothing
+definite in regard to the fasting abilities of the young woman.
+It simply, with the other, may be accepted as indicating
+that hysterical women are able to go for comparatively long
+periods without food, and that fact we already knew. It will
+be observed that it is stated that she "<i>seemed</i>" to go four years
+without food or drink.</p>
+
+<p>In regard to Miss Fancher, the evidence is a little conflicting.
+First we have Dr. Speir reported as saying, in answer to
+a question as to her having lived fourteen years without food:</p>
+
+<p>"'Yes, she became my patient in 1864. Her case is a most
+remarkable one.'</p>
+
+<p>"'But has she eaten nothing during all these years?'</p>
+
+<p>"'I can safely say she has not.'"</p>
+
+<p>This in the <i>Herald</i>.</p>
+
+<p>But about a month afterward we find the following conversation,
+reported as taking place between the same physician
+and another reporter, this time of the <i>Sun</i>:</p>
+
+<p>"'Is it true that she has not partaken of food in all these
+thirteen years?'</p>
+
+<p>"'No, I cannot say that she has not; I have not been constantly
+with her for thirteen years. She may have taken food
+in my absence.'"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>In which opinion all physiologists will join.</p>
+
+<p>As I have said, hysterical women certainly do exhibit a
+marked ability to go without both food and drink. I have had
+patients abstain from sometimes one, sometimes the other, and
+sometimes both, for periods varying from one day to eleven,
+and this without much, if any, suffering, for as soon as the
+suffering came they did not hesitate to signify their desire to
+break their voluntary fasts. Real suffering is a condition
+which the hysterical woman avoids with the most assiduous
+care.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> Curiosities of Medical Experience. London, 1837, Vol. I., page 269,
+article, <i>Abstinence</i>.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="V" id="V"></a>V.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE PHYSIOLOGY AND PATHOLOGY OF INANITION.</h3>
+
+<p>The opinion that food and drink are necessary to life is so
+generally accepted by mankind, that few venture to dispute the
+dictum of Virchow relative to Louise Lateau, "Fraud or miracle."
+But although it is impossible so far as we know for
+individuals to continue to exist for months and years without
+the ingestion of nutriment into the system, it is undoubtedly
+true that under certain circumstances life can be prolonged for
+days and weeks without any food of any kind going into the
+organism.</p>
+
+<p>The body is a machine constructed for the purpose of working.
+The kinds of work which the body of a man or woman
+does are many. Every act of perception or sensation, is an act
+of work; so is every thought, every emotion, every volition.
+The action of the heart or lungs in the circulation and respiration,
+the evolution of the animal heat, the various functions of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span>
+secretion and excretion, digestion, motion, speech, etc., are all
+so many kinds of work. Now as regards work, it is well known
+that for its due performance force is required, and it is equally
+well known that for the development of force, matter that can
+be metamorphosed is necessary. The engine may be perfect,
+the water may be in the boiler, but unless there be force in the
+form of heat there will be no steam; and there will be no heat
+unless there be fuel in a state of combustion.</p>
+
+<p>The human body differs from any other machine in the fact
+that it uses its fuel in great part indirectly; only in fact after it
+has been assimilated and converted into tissues of various
+kinds. Thus when a muscle contracts, it is the muscle itself
+which is consumed; when a thought is conceived it is the brain
+which provides the force; when an emotion is experienced, it
+is again the brain which is decomposed. The body, therefore,
+lives by the death of its own substance. It is true, some kinds
+of food such as alcohol, tea and coffee, and perhaps some
+others do not require to go farther than the blood to be
+burned, but these are mainly heat-producing, and not tissue-producing
+substances. But whether matter be consumed directly
+or indirectly, all bodily force results from its decomposition,
+and without this destruction of matter the body would be
+absolutely incapable of a single functional action of any kind
+whatever, and its temperature like that of the so-called cold-blooded
+animals would be that of the surrounding medium, the
+atmosphere.</p>
+
+<p>The quantity of food required by the system varies like the
+demands of other machines in accordance with the amount of
+work which is to be performed. A plowman, other things being<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span>
+equal, consumes more than a watchmaker; just as a locomotive
+burns more fuel than the little engine that runs a sewing machine;
+the strong able-bodied active man, one who works his
+brains and muscles up to their full power, eats more than the
+weak, emaciated and inactive girl, who passes all her time in
+the recumbent position in bed; and the latter will, other things
+being equal, endure for a longer period entire abstinence from
+food. A little food with such a one goes a great way, the
+demands of the system are at their minimum, and hence a
+mouthful of bread, or a little tea and toast taken at long intervals,
+suffices for the supply of all, or a great portion of the
+waste of the body. With such a person there is not much intense
+thought, there is little or no muscular action, the pulsations
+of the heart do not require to be of much force, the respiration
+is feeble, digestion is at its lowest point, there are no
+great demands for animal heat, and in fact if the temperature
+of the atmosphere of the room in which such a person lies, be
+kept high, the function of calorification may be almost nothing.
+Still there must be some food taken. The body, can to a certain
+extent, be used up in supplying the force required for the several
+functions without the necessity for an immediate restoration of
+its tissues, but there is a limit to this, beyond which it is certain
+death to go.</p>
+
+<p>Chossat<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> has determined this point very accurately by many
+experiments performed upon doves, pigeons, Guinea pigs,
+rabbits, etc. He found that as a mean result, death ensued
+when the body lost four-tenths of its original weight. For instance,
+a body weighing one hundred pounds, could endure the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span>
+loss of forty pounds without death necessarily following. Five-tenths
+or one-half appeared to be the extreme loss of weight in
+inanition which the body could endure without death resulting.</p>
+
+<p>In addition to the loss of weight the temperature fell rapidly,
+the action of the heart was lessened, the number and depth of
+the respirations was diminished, and the excretions gradually
+became smaller in amount.</p>
+
+<p>Experiments such as those of Chossat on the lower animals,
+cannot of course be instituted on the human subject, nevertheless
+nature sometimes performs experiments for us which are
+not without valuable results; and accidents of various kinds,
+have also given us important data.</p>
+
+<p>On the 19th of March, 1755, twenty-two persons living in the
+Alpine village of Bergemoletto, in Piedmont, were buried in
+their houses by an avalanche or whirlwind of snow. The space
+covered was about 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.<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a></p>
+
+<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a></p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span></p>
+<p>A case is mentioned by Foder&eacute;<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> 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. Foder&eacute; 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.</p>
+
+<p>In another case reported by Dr. Straus,<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> 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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span>
+ensues varies according to the kind of insanity with which the
+patient is affected. A general paralytic deprived of all food
+dies sooner than a healthy person. An insane person suffering
+from acute mania also resists inanition badly, but one the subject
+of melancholia often endures the total deprivation of aliment
+for a long time. Esquirol<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> cites the case of a melancholic
+who did not succumb till after eighteen days of complete
+abstinence, and Desbarreaux-Bernard another in which life
+was prolonged for sixty-one days, but in this case a little broth
+was taken once. Desportes<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> refers to the case of a woman subject
+to melancholia who continued to exist during two months
+of abstinence, during which she took nothing into the stomach
+but a little water.</p>
+
+<p>It would be easy to go on and quote other instances occurring
+among prisoners, shipwrecked persons, those suffering from
+diseases which prevented food entering the stomach, others lost
+in deserts, forests, etc., in which life has been prolonged for
+considerable periods. Such cases are, however, quite exceptional.
+An interesting instance occurring under one of these
+heads may, however, be cited as an example.</p>
+
+<p>M. L&eacute;pine<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> reports the case of a young girl nineteen years of
+age who swallowed a quantity of sulphuric acid. As a consequence
+a stricture of the &#339;sophagus was produced. Three
+months after the act, liquids alone passed into the stomach;
+emaciation was extreme and the countenance pallid. Four
+months subsequently, that is, seven months after swallowing the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span>
+acid, the obliteration of the &#339;sophagus was complete, and nothing
+whatever could be swallowed. The patient lived for sixteen
+days after all food or drink was prevented reaching the stomach.
+During the last days of her starvation she complained only of
+thirst and not of hunger. The prostration was extreme and
+the temperature greatly lessened. A tendency to sleep was
+present, and there was a subdued delirium. On the last day of
+life there was more excitement; the conjunctiv&aelig; were red, the
+pulse thread-like, and the skin cold. It is not stated whether
+or not attempts were made to feed this patient by injections
+into the rectum of nutritious substances, or by the use of baths
+containing such matters in solution. It may, however, safely
+be taken for granted that efforts of these kinds were made, and
+if so, the unusually long period during which life was sustained
+is explained.</p>
+
+<p>In all the cases in which life was extraordinarily prolonged
+there was either not a total deprivation of food and drink, or there
+was a state of muscular inaction present particularly favorable
+to retardation of the destructive changes in the body which abstinence
+produces. It may be asserted that in ordinary cases
+absolute deprivation of food and drink cannot be endured by a
+healthy adult longer than ten days, and death generally ensues
+before the end of the eighth day. It is said that women sustain
+abstinence better than men. Young persons and the aged
+certainly resist with less power than those of the middle period
+of life. Dante was aware of this fact when he made the children
+of Ugolino die before their father, the youngest first, the
+oldest last.</p>
+
+<p>Even though there be a total deprivation of what may strictly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span>
+be called food, some of the cases already cited show that if
+water be taken life is preserved for a much longer period than
+would otherwise be the case. Thus a negro woman, according
+to Dr. J. W. Francis,<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> believing herself to be bewitched, abstained
+from food for three weeks, but during this period took
+two small cups of water, to which a very little wine had been
+added.</p>
+
+<p>In a case reported by Dr. McNaughton<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> a longer resistance
+was maintained.</p>
+
+<p>"The subject of this case was a young man, aged twenty-seven,
+who for three years immediately preceding his death
+almost constantly kept his room, apparently engaged in meditation,
+a Bible his only companion. At the latter end of May,
+1829, his appetite began to fail; he ate very little, and on the
+2d of July he declined eating altogether. For the first six
+weeks of his fast he went regularly to the well, washed himself,
+and took a bowl full of water with him into the house. With
+this he occasionally washed his mouth and drank a little; the
+quantity taken during the twenty-four hours did not exceed a
+pint. On one occasion he went three days without taking
+water, but on the fourth morning he was observed to go to the
+well and drink copiously and greedily. For the first six weeks
+he walked out every day, and sometimes spent the greater part
+of the day in the woods. He retained his strength until a
+short time before his death. During the first three weeks he
+emaciated rapidly; afterwards he did not seem to waste so sensibly.
+Prof. Willoughby visited him a few days before he died.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span>
+He found the skin very cold, the respiration feeble and slow,
+but otherwise natural; but the effluvia from the breath, and
+perhaps the skin, were extremely offensive. During the greater
+part of the latter week of his life the parents say there was a
+considerable discharge of foul reddish matter from the lungs.
+To this perhaps the offensive smell referred to may be chiefly
+attributed. The pulse was regular, but slow and feeble, and
+the arteries extremely contracted. The radial artery, for example,
+could be distinctly felt like a small, hard thread, communicating
+almost a wiry feel.</p>
+
+<p>"The alvine evacuations were rare; it is believed that he
+passed several weeks without any, but the secretion of urine
+seemed more regular. He died after fasting fifty-three days.
+On dissection the stomach was found loose and flabby. The
+gall bladder was distended with a dark, muddy-looking bile.
+The mesentery, stomach and intestines were excessively thin
+and transparent. There was no fat in the omentum."</p>
+
+<p>In cases of complete abstinence, the phenomena&mdash;to several
+of which attention has already been called&mdash;are very striking.
+The respiration becomes slow until just before death, when, as
+Chossat observes, there is often a quickening of the respiratory
+movements. The exhaled breath has a peculiarly sickening
+and fetid odor. The pulse loses in force and frequency.</p>
+
+<p>The blood becomes reduced in quantity to such an extent
+sometimes that, as observed by Collard and Martigny,<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> incisions
+may be made in various parts of the bodies of animals suffering
+from inanition without there being any h&aelig;morrhage.</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span></p>
+<p>The animal temperature falls, according to Chossat, 8&deg; per
+day until the day of death, when it reaches 14&deg;; and at the
+moment life departs, the loss suddenly becomes 30&deg;.</p>
+
+<p>All the secretions are diminished in quantity. This is especially
+shown as regards the saliva and urine. Even open sores
+cease to secrete pus.</p>
+
+<p>At first there is pain, the seat of which is referred to the
+stomach, and which pain in the beginning, being simply a feeling
+of emptiness, rapidly assumes a gnawing or tearing character.
+But before long this fades away and it does not appear
+that in the middle and final stages of inanition there is any
+suffering which can be called a pain, or which can be fixed in
+any definite part of the body.</p>
+
+<p>The mental faculties are profoundly affected. A high state
+of delirium supervenes, and there are often hallucinations.
+These sometimes relate to food, which appears to the sufferer
+to be spread out before him in the most seducing manner. All
+nobility of character disappears, and selfishness and brutality
+govern. Finally the delirium becomes low and muttering, the
+bodily weakness becomes excessive, walking, or even standing,
+is impossible, the sufferer loses all sensation, and death ensues.</p>
+
+<p>But probably no part of the subject is of more interest than
+that which relates to the association of inanition with hysteria.
+As is well known by physicians, the existence of this latter condition
+enables many to bear partial, or even complete deprivation
+of food longer and with less apparent suffering than would
+be possible with individuals in good health.</p>
+
+<p>That Miss Fancher is subject to hysteria is very evident from
+a consideration of the clinical history of her case, and hence it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span>
+is to be expected that she can endure long fasts without much
+inconvenience. It is just possible that she might, by remaining
+quietly in bed in a state of partial or complete trance&mdash;a hysterical
+condition in which the waste of the tissues is greatly reduced&mdash;exist
+for a month without either food or drink, and
+therefore the proposition which I made to her friends contains
+no exacting condition. But when it is gravely said that "for a
+period of nearly fourteen years she has lived absolutely without
+food or nourishment of any kind," we are forced to declare, in
+the interest of science, that the statement is necessarily absolutely
+devoid of truth. Subsequent statements, as we have
+seen, modify this fourteen years' claim very materially, and
+really leave it in doubt whether there was any abstinence at
+all.</p>
+
+<p>But I think it may safely be believed that Miss Fancher has
+indulged in frequent long fasts. Hysteria is very frequently
+marked, not only by the ability to endure lengthened periods
+of abstinence, but by the abolition of all desire for food, to
+such an extent that the sight or even idea of aliment of any
+kind excites loathing and disgust. M. Las&egrave;gue,<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> in a very interesting
+memoir, has discussed this part of the subject with
+great precision, and has shown that though such patients take
+very little food they do take some, and that eventually they experience
+all the symptoms of inanition. He has never seen
+death result from the abstinence, for as soon as the condition
+becomes decidedly unpleasant the patient resumes gradually
+her normal alimentation.</p>
+
+<p>In a case recently under my care, a young lady twenty-three<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span>
+years of age became hysterical in consequence of domestic
+troubles, and losing all desire for food, took nothing daily but a
+single cup of chocolate. She persevered in this restricted diet for
+twenty-nine days, although during the last eight or ten she gave
+decided evidences of starvation. She became emaciated, her
+temperature fell, especially in the extremities, her breath was
+offensive, her menstruation ceased, and there was such a marked
+sense of discomfort that she began to crave food, not, as she
+said, because her appetite had returned, but because she was
+afraid she would die. Still she resisted till, on the thirtieth
+day, she begged for a little beef tea, and from that moment her
+appetite returned to her, and by the end of another week, she
+was eating her ordinary quantity and variety of food.</p>
+
+<p>Now, in this case, though the amount of nutriment taken
+daily was small, it was of such a character as to be well able to
+sustain life. The half pint of chocolate contained milk and
+sugar, besides the highly nutritious chocolate, with its carbonaceous
+and nitrogenous matters, and yet a month was the extreme
+limit of endurance.</p>
+
+<p>That a state of inanition exists in Miss Fancher is not to be
+doubted. The extreme emaciation, the reduced bodily temperature,
+the contracted stomach and intestines, the great bodily
+weakness, all show that she is not sufficiently nourished. In
+her case there is apparently not only an absence of appetite but
+a positive disgust for food; and another symptom often present
+in inanition&mdash;vomiting when nutriment is taken into the
+stomach&mdash;appears also to be a prominent feature. It is probable
+that there is likewise a notable diminution in the amount of
+urine excreted, as this is a common accompaniment of hysterical<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span>
+manifestations such as hers. In some instances the function
+appears to be almost entirely arrested, as was the fact in a case
+described by M. Charcot,<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a> and in two which have come under
+my own observation.</p>
+
+<p>There is nothing remarkable in the admitted fact that Miss
+Fancher eats very little. We have seen how existence can be
+kept up on greatly reduced quantities of food, and under circumstances
+such as those governing her case, for periods which
+would be impossible in healthy persons. No one yet under any
+conditions, whether of hysteria or trance or assumed miraculous
+interference, has, to the satisfaction of competent and disinterested
+investigators, lived even two months without the ingestion
+of any food whatever. As to going nearly fourteen years in a
+state of abstinence&mdash;a statement in her behalf which many
+persons believe to be true&mdash;I can only say that all the teachings
+of science and of experience are against the claim. No one
+who had the most superficial idea of what knowledge is and
+how facts can be proven, would for a moment accept such a
+preposterous story, no matter by whom asserted.</p>
+
+<p>The whole subject is one which is to be examined into and
+determined like any other matter, and yet, when a proposition
+is made to investigate by skilled observers the remarkable claim
+put forward, it is met with abuse and misrepresentation, as if
+these people thought that all they had to do was to make an
+assertion of a phenomenon which, according to what we know
+of nature, is absurd and impossible, to have it at once accepted
+by those who know, by painful experience, how doubtful all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span>
+things are till they are proven, and how difficult it is to get
+satisfactory evidence of the most simple event in physiology or
+pathology. No one doubts the abstract possibility of a human
+being living without food, for, bearing in mind the discoveries
+that are constantly being made, nothing can be regarded as absolutely
+impossible outside the domain of mathematics. Two
+and two cannot make six, neither can two distinct bodies occupy
+the same space at the same time, nor the square of the
+hypothenuse be otherwise than equal to the sum of the squares
+of the other two sides of a right-angled triangle.</p>
+
+<p>Our knowledge of natural science is, however, founded on experience.
+Looking at a bear, for instance, for the first time, and
+with no knowledge of its habits and capacities we would not be apt
+to believe that the animal could go into retirement at the beginning
+of winter and remain till spring in a condition of semi-existence
+and without food. But experience teaches us that
+the bear when it begins to hibernate is fat; that during hibernation
+it is in a perfectly quiescent state; that when it emerges
+into active life again it is emaciated, and that during the whole
+period of retirement it has taken nothing into its stomach. We
+then know by observing that all bears go through the same
+process, that it is a law of their organism to do so, and that
+their reduced functional actions are maintained by the consumption
+of the fat with which in the beginning their bodies
+were loaded. Even here, then, there is no exception to the law
+that there is no force without the decomposition of matter.
+Now, it is just possible that by some hitherto unknown or unrecognized
+condition of the system a man or woman may obtain
+the force necessary to carry on life for fourteen years without<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span>
+getting it through food taken into the stomach. But a
+possibility and a fact are two very different things, and the admitted
+possibility has not yet been shown to be a fact. It is
+easier&mdash;to use the argument of Hume&mdash;for the mind to accept
+the view that there is deception or error somewhere, than to
+believe that a woman, contrary to all human experience, should
+live fourteen years without food. Turtles, we know, will live for
+months while entirely deprived of nutriment. Many others of
+the cold-blooded animals will do the same thing. It is their
+nature to do so, and we have experience of the fact, but it is
+not the nature of women, so far as we know, and therefore we
+refuse to accept as true the stories which are told of their powers
+in this direction. And our knowledge is based not only on our
+daily experience of the wants of their systems and the examples
+of starvation which have come to our knowledge, but also
+upon the fact that in the many cases of alleged long abstinence
+from food that have been investigated, error or deception has
+been discovered. Therefore, when it is said that Miss Fancher
+lives without food, and has so done for fourteen years, we simply
+say, "give us the proofs." Of course the proofs are not given.</p>
+
+<p>How far Miss Fancher is responsible for the assertions that
+have been made in regard to her long-continued abstinence I
+do not know. A tendency to deception is a notable phenomenon
+of hysteria, and if she has led those about her to accept
+the view that she has existed without food for years, the circumstance
+would be in no way remarkable. Other hysterical
+women have deceived in the same or in still more astonishing
+ways. Or it may be that the amount of food taken being very
+small, carelessness or want of exactness has led to the expression<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span>
+that she lived upon "absolutely nothing," just as we hear
+the words used every day by those who have little or no
+appetite, but who nevertheless do eat something. Again, a love
+for the marvellous is so deeply rooted in the average human
+mind that it willingly, and to a certain extent unconsciously,
+adds to any statement of a remarkable circumstance, till the
+latter grows, whilst being repeated, to fabulous dimensions.</p>
+
+<p>But however this may be, whatever the explanation, it is
+quite certain that if Miss Fancher has lived fourteen years
+without food, or even fourteen months, or weeks, she is a unique
+psychological or pathological individual, whose case is worthy
+of all the consideration which can be given to it, not by superstitious
+or credulous or ignorant persons, but by those who,
+trained in the proper methods of scientific research, would
+know how to get the whole truth of her case, and nothing but
+the truth. It is to be regretted, therefore, that the proposition
+contained in the annexed letter (<a href="#APPENDIX">Appendix</a>) was not accepted,
+and that we are forced to place Miss Fancher's case among
+the others which have proved to be fallacious, till such time as
+it may suit her and her friends to allow of such an examination.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> Recherches exp&eacute;rimentales sur l'inanition. Paris, 1843, p. 20.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> Universal Magazine, Vol. XXXVI, p. 250.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> Abridged Philosophical Transaction, Vol. III, p. 111.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> Trait&eacute; de m&eacute;decine l&eacute;gale et d'hygi&egrave;ne publique. Paris, 1813. t. II, p. 285.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> Medical Gazette, Vol. XVII, p. 389.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> Des maladies mentales. Paris, 1838, p. 203.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> Du refus de manger chez les ali&eacute;n&eacute;s. Th&egrave;se de Paris 1864, p.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> Nouveau dictionnaire de m&eacute;decine et de chirurgie pratiques. Paris,
+1874. t. XVIII., Art. Inanition, p. 503.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> New York Medical and Surgical Journal, Vol. II, p. 31.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> Quoted from Trans. of the Albany Institute by Dr. Lee in Copland's
+Dictionary of Medicine. Vol. I, p. 31.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> Recherches exp&eacute;rimentales sur les effets de l'abstinence. <i>Journal de
+Physiologie</i> de Magendie, t. VIII, p. 150.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> De l'anorexie hyst&eacute;rique. <i>Archives g&eacute;n&eacute;rales de m&eacute;decine</i>, April 1875.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> Le&ccedil;ons sur les maladies du syst&egrave;me nerveux, t. I., 2d edition. Paris,
+1876, p. 178.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="APPENDIX" id="APPENDIX"></a>APPENDIX.</h2>
+
+<p>The following letter embraces the proposition made to Miss
+Fancher, to which allusion is made in the text:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">To The Editor of the Herald</span>:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>I have read the letter of Professor Henry M. Parkhurst, published in a
+recent issue of the <span class="smcap">Herald</span>, relative to the "mind reading" or clairvoyance
+of Miss Mollie Fancher, of Brooklyn, and it does not satisfy me that the
+young lady in question possesses any such power. It would have been very
+easy for her to have opened the envelope without disturbing the seal and to
+have read the contents. Now, there has been a great deal of talk about
+Miss Fancher's case. I have received just fifty-seven letters asking me to
+investigate it, and the press has reiterated the invitation over and over
+again. I have stated very explicitly that I regard the whole matter as a
+humbug of the most decided kind, but I have never asserted the impossibility
+of the young lady's alleged performances. On the contrary, I hold
+nothing to be absolutely impossible outside the domain of mathematics.
+But possibilities and realities are very different things, and I certainly will
+not accept as true any such phenomena as those asserted to have been associated
+with Miss Fancher unless they are proven.</p>
+
+<p>I have already declared my readiness to investigate Miss Fancher, and, a
+few days since, in the <i>Sun</i>, proposed a test which will be perfectly satisfactory
+to me and many others who, at present, are in accordance with me in
+my estimation of this young lady. Permit me now to state it definitely,
+specifically, and once for all. I will place a certified check for a sum of
+money exceeding $1,000 inside of a single paper envelope. I will lay the
+package on a table in the room in which she is. If she chooses she may
+take it in her hands and place it in contact with any part of her body. I
+will allow her half an hour to describe the check. If she reads it&mdash;number,
+date, on whom drawn, amount, signature, etc.&mdash;accurately, she may have
+the check as her own property, or I will give the amount expressed in the
+check, in her name to any charitable institution she may designate, or otherwise
+dispose of it in accordance with her wishes.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The only conditions I exact are these:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><i>First</i>&mdash;That the experiment be conducted in my presence and in that of
+two other physicians, members of the New York Neurological Society,
+whom I will bring with me as witness simply, and who will not interfere in
+any way with the test.</p>
+
+<p><i>Second</i>&mdash;That the envelope shall at no time pass out of our sight.</p>
+
+<p>If Miss Fancher succeeds in this test I will admit that heretofore in my
+denunciations of such performances as hers I have been in error, and that
+there is a force in nature which ought to be investigated. I will pay the
+money not only without chagrin, but with great satisfaction, and will consider
+that I have received full value.</p>
+
+<p>If she fails, as I am quite sure she will, I shall not hesitate to continue
+to denounce her as an imposition in this as well as in her assumed abstinence
+from food.</p>
+
+<p>A word further in regard to this last matter. I know something about
+"fasting girls" and their frauds, not excepting the sad case of poor little Sarah
+Jacob. But I will make this additional proposition:&mdash;If Miss Fancher will
+allow herself to be watched, day and night, for one month, by relays of
+members of the New York Neurological Society, I will give her $1,000 if
+at the end of that month she has not in the meantime taken food voluntarily
+or as a forced measure to save her from dying of starvation, the danger of
+this last contingency to be judged of by her family physician, Dr. Speir.
+These offers to remain open for acceptance till twelve o'clock M., December
+31st. If not taken up by that time, let us hear no more in support of
+Miss Fancher's mind reading or clairvoyance, or living for a dozen or more
+years without food.</p>
+
+<p class="td2">WILLIAM A. HAMMOND, M.D.</p>
+
+<p><i>43 West Fifty-Fourth Street, New York, Dec. 12th, 1878.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="trn"><p><b>Transcriber's Note:</b>
+Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note, whilst
+significant amendments have been listed below:</p>
+
+<div class="bk3"><p>p. <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, 'Nicholas' amended to <i>Nicolas</i></p>
+
+<p>p. <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, 'Aquaintoin' amended to <i>Aquitaine</i></p>
+
+<p>p. <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, 'predominent' amended to <i>predominant</i></p>
+
+<p>p. <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, 'Geraldus Bucoldianus' amended to <i>Gerardus Bucoldianus</i></p>
+
+<p>p. <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, 'f&#339;ces' amended to <i>f&aelig;ces</i></p>
+
+<p>p. <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, 'developes' amended to <i>develops</i></p>
+
+<p>p. <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, fn. <a href="#Footnote_4_4">4</a>, '<span title="Pasat&ecirc;s&ecirc;se&ocirc;n">&#928;&#945;&#962;&#945;&#964;&#951;&#962;&#8053;&#963;&#949;&#969;&#957;</span>' amended to <i><span title="Parat&ecirc;r&ecirc;se&ocirc;n">&#928;&#945;&#961;&#945;&#964;&#951;&#961;&#8053;&#963;&#949;&#969;&#957;</span></i></p>
+
+<p>p. <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, fn. <a href="#Footnote_4_4">4</a>, added <i>rararum</i>: 'medicarum, <i>rararum</i>, novarum'</p>
+
+<p>p. <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, fn. <a href="#Footnote_4_4">4</a>, 'monstrasarum' amended to <i>monstrosarum</i></p>
+
+<p>p. <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, '1567' amended to <i>1597</i></p>
+
+<p>p. <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, fn. <a href="#Footnote_7_7">7</a>, 'chirurgic&aelig;' amended to <i>chirurgicarum</i></p>
+
+<p>p. <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, 'Anne Jones' amended to <i>Ann Jones</i></p>
+
+<p>p. <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, 'f&#339;cal' amended to <i>f&aelig;cal</i></p>
+
+<p>p. <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, 'f&#339;ces' amended to <i>f&aelig;ces</i></p>
+
+<p>p. <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, 'Cardinal Carrafa' amended to <i>Cardinal Carafa</i></p>
+
+<p>p. <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, 'Farenheit' amended to <i>Fahrenheit</i></p>
+
+<p>p. <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, fn. <a href="#Footnote_13_13">13</a>, 'Rapport M&eacute;dicale' amended to <i>Rapport M&eacute;dical</i></p>
+
+<p>p. <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, fn. <a href="#Footnote_13_13">13</a>, added <i>de</i>: 'm&eacute;decine <i>de</i> Belgique'</p>
+
+<p>p. <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, 'ecstacy' amended to <i>ecstasy</i></p>
+
+<p>p. <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, added <i>of</i>: 'direction <i>of</i> M. le Cur&eacute;'</p>
+
+<p>p. <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, 'fecal' amended to <i>f&aelig;cal</i></p>
+
+<p>p. <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, 'stigmatisations' amended to <i>stigmatizations</i></p>
+
+<p>p. <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, 'fortell' amended to <i>foretell</i></p>
+
+<p>p. <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, 'marvelous' amended to <i>marvellous</i></p>
+
+<p>p. <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, 'is' amended to <i>it</i>: 'that <i>it</i> is stated'</p>
+
+<p>p. <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, 'Dr. Spier' amended to <i>Dr. Speir</i></p>
+
+<p>p. <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, 'assimulated' amended to <i>assimilated</i></p>
+
+<p>p. <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, 'alchohol' amended to <i>alcohol</i></p>
+
+<p>p. <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, 'Bergemolletta' amended to <i>Bergemoletto</i></p>
+
+<p>p. <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, 'breath' amended to <i>breadth</i></p>
+
+<p>p. <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, 'Belguim' amended to <i>Belgium</i></p>
+
+<p>p. <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, fn. <a href="#Footnote_18_18">18</a>, 'm&eacute;dicine' amended to <i>m&eacute;decine</i></p>
+
+<p>p. <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, 'palid' amended to <i>pallid</i></p>
+
+<p>p. <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, fn. <a href="#Footnote_22_22">22</a>, 'Nouvreau' amended to <i>Nouveau</i></p>
+
+<p>p. <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, fn. <a href="#Footnote_22_22">22</a>, 'm&eacute;dicine' amended to <i>m&eacute;decine</i></p>
+
+<p>p. <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, 'messentery' amended to <i>mesentery</i></p>
+
+<p>p. <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, 'their' amended to <i>there</i></p>
+
+<p>p. <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, 'hemorrhage' amended to <i>h&aelig;morrhage</i></p>
+
+<p>p. <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, 'Chosset' amended to <i>Chossat</i></p>
+
+<p>p. <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, fn. <a href="#Footnote_26_26">26</a>, 'm&eacute;dicine' amended to <i>m&eacute;decine</i></p>
+
+<p>p. <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, 'her's' amended to <i>hers</i></p>
+
+<p>p. <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, 'injestion' amended to <i>ingestion</i></p>
+
+<p>p. <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, 'Sarah Jacobs' amended to <i>Sarah Jacob</i></p>
+
+<p>p. <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, 'Dr. Spier' amended to <i>Dr. Speir</i></p></div>
+
+<p>The page reference in fn. <a href="#Footnote_21_21">21</a> (p. <a href="#Page_64">64</a>) was omitted in the original text.</p></div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Fasting Girls, by William Alexander Hammond
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+</body>
+</html>
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@@ -0,0 +1,2826 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Fasting Girls, by William Alexander Hammond
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Fasting Girls
+       Their Physiology and Pathology
+
+Author: William Alexander Hammond
+
+Release Date: May 26, 2008 [EBook #25601]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FASTING GIRLS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Bryan Ness, Stephen Blundell and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This
+book was produced from scanned images of public domain
+material from the Google Print project.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                            BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
+
+
+    CEREBRAL HYPERAEMIA: THE RESULT OF MENTAL STRAIN
+      OR EMOTIONAL DISTURBANCES. 16mo, cloth ... $1 00
+
+    "Under the disguise of these hard words, Dr. Hammond presents a
+    variety of admirable counsels, with regard to an excess of blood in
+    the head, pointing out its causes, its symptoms, the mode of its
+    medical treatment, and the means of its prevention."--_N. Y. Tribune._
+
+    "The work is not only of interest to the medical man, but also is
+    one easily understood and to be read with profit by brain-workers of
+    all classes, whether in profession, in literature or business. It
+    treats of the cause of headaches, the wakefulness, the illusions or
+    delusions, and feelings of tightness in the head, which so many of
+    our American writers and thinkers experience, and it gives valuable
+    information available by laymen as to the prevention and remedy for
+    this affection, which later on leads to insanity or death."--_Boston
+    Traveller._
+
+                              G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK.
+
+
+
+
+                       FASTING GIRLS;
+
+               THEIR PHYSIOLOGY AND PATHOLOGY
+
+
+                             BY
+
+                  WILLIAM A. HAMMOND, M.D.
+
+ PROFESSOR OF DISEASES OF THE MIND AND NERVOUS SYSTEM IN THE
+     MEDICAL DEPARTMENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF THE CITY OF
+      NEW YORK, AND IN THE UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT. ETC.
+
+
+           "There is no new thing under the Sun."
+                                         --_Eccl._ I, 9.
+
+        "Nil spernat auris, nec tamen credat statim."
+                                               --PHAEDRUS.
+
+
+                          NEW YORK
+                     G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
+                      182 FIFTH AVENUE
+                            1879
+
+
+
+
+     COPYRIGHT BY
+ G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS.
+        1879.
+
+
+Transcriber's Note:
+
+    Greek text has been transliterated and is shown between {braces}.
+    The oe ligature is shown as [oe].
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+In issuing this little book I have been actuated by a desire to do
+something towards the removal of a lamentable degree of popular
+ignorance.
+
+It seems that no proposition that can be made is so absurd or impossible
+but that many people, ordinarily regarded as intelligent, will be found
+to accept it and to aid in its propagation. And hence, when it is
+asserted that a young lady has lived for fourteen years without food of
+any kind, hundreds and thousands of persons throughout the length and
+breadth of a civilized land at once yield their belief to the monstrous
+declaration.
+
+I have confined my remarks entirely to the question of abstinence from
+food. The other supernatural gifts, the possession of which is claimed,
+would, if considered, have extended the limits of this little volume
+beyond the bounds which were deemed expedient. At some future time I may
+be tempted to discuss them. In the meantime it is well to call to mind
+that a proposition (_see_ Appendix) which I made solely in the interest
+of truth was disregarded, ostensibly with the desire to avoid publicity,
+when in fact the daily press had for weeks been filled with reports in
+detail, furnished by the friends of the young lady in question, of the
+marvellous powers she was said to possess.
+
+A portion of this essay, which bore upon the matter discussed, has been
+taken from another volume by the author, published several years ago,
+and now out of print.
+
+                                                   WILLIAM A. HAMMOND.
+
+ 43 WEST 54TH STREET,
+  MARCH _1st, 1879_.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+                                                   PAGE
+
+   I  ABSTINENCE IN THE MIDDLE AGES                   1
+
+  II  ABSTINENCE IN MODERN TIMES                      6
+
+ III  ABSTINENCE FROM FOOD, WITH STIGMATIZATION      31
+
+  IV  THE BROOKLYN CASE                              48
+
+   V  THE PHYSIOLOGY AND PATHOLOGY OF INANITION      59
+
+
+
+
+FASTING GIRLS.
+
+
+
+
+I.
+
+ABSTINENCE IN THE MIDDLE AGES.
+
+
+Among the many remarkable manifestations by which hysteria exhibits
+itself, for the astonishment of the credulous and uneducated portion of
+the public, and--alas, that it should have to be said,--for the
+delectation of an occasional weak-minded and ignorant physician, the
+assumption of the ability to live without food may be assigned a
+prominent place. I am not aware that this power has been claimed in its
+fullest development for the male of the human species. When he is
+deprived of food he dies in a few days, more or less, according to his
+physical condition as regards adipose tissue and strength of
+constitution; but if a weak emaciated girl asserts that she is able to
+exist for years without eating, there are at once certificates and
+letters from clergymen, professors, and even physicians, in support of
+the truth of her story. The element of impossibility goes for nothing
+against the bare word of such a woman, and her statements are accepted
+with a degree of confidence which is lamentable to witness in this era
+of the world's progress.
+
+The class of deceptions occasionally induced by hysteria, and embracing
+these "fasting girls," has been known for many years, though it is only
+in comparatively recent times that the instances have been taken at
+their proper value. Goerres[1] gives a number of examples occurring among
+male and female saints and other holy persons, in which partial or total
+abstinence from food was said to have existed for long periods.
+
+Thus Liduine of Schiedam fell ill in 1395, and remained in that state
+till her death, thirty-three years subsequently. During the first
+nineteen years she ate every day nothing but a little piece of apple the
+size of a holy wafer, and drank a little water and a swallow of beer, or
+sometimes a little sweet milk. Subsequently, being unable to digest beer
+and milk, she restricted herself to a little wine and water, and still
+later she was obliged to confine herself to water alone, which served
+her both as food and drink. But after nineteen years she took nothing
+whatever, according to her own statement made to some friars in 1422,
+she averring that for eight years nothing in the way of nourishment had
+passed her lips, and that for twenty years she had seen neither the sun
+nor the moon, nor had touched the earth with her feet.
+
+Saint Joseph of Copertino remained for five years without eating bread,
+and ten years without drinking wine, contenting himself with dried
+fruits, which he mixed with various bitter herbs. The herb which he used
+for Fridays had such an atrocious taste, that one of the brethren, by
+simply putting his tongue to it, was seized with vomiting, and for
+several days thereafter everything he ate excited nausea. He fasted for
+forty days seven times every year, and during these periods ate nothing
+at all except on Sundays and Thursdays.
+
+Nicolas of Flue, as soon as he embraced the monastic life, subsisted
+altogether on the holy eucharist. The pious Goerres in explanation of
+this miracle says:
+
+"In ordinary nourishment he who eats being superior to that which is
+eaten, assimilates the aliments which he takes, and communicates to them
+his own nature. But in the eucharist the aliment is more powerful than
+he who eats. It is no longer therefore the nourishment which is
+assimilated, but on the contrary, it assimilates the man, and introduces
+him into a superior sphere. An entire change is produced. The
+supernatural life in some way or other absorbs the natural life, and the
+man instead of living on earth, lives henceforth by grace and by
+heaven."
+
+This is about on a par, as regards lucidity and logic, with the
+explanations which we are given of the alleged case of prolonged fasting
+in Brooklyn.
+
+Doubts arose in regard to Nicolas, and the bishop had him watched, but
+without detecting him in fraud. Finally he ordered him to eat a piece of
+bread in his presence. Nicolas did as he was commanded, but at the first
+mouthful he was seized with violent vomiting. The bishop inquired of him
+how he thus managed to live without eating, to which the brother
+answered that when he assisted at mass, and when he took the holy
+eucharist, he felt a degree of strength and suppleness like that derived
+from the most nutritious food.
+
+Still the doubters continued, and the inhabitants of Underwold, where
+Nicolas lived, appear to have been at first very much inclined to
+suspect him of deceit. But they were finally converted, for having
+during a whole month guarded every approach to his cabin, and having
+during that time detected no one in taking food to him, they were
+convinced that for that time at least he had lived without food. The
+sceptical reasoner of the present day would probably regard the test as
+insufficient.
+
+In 1225, Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln, having heard that there was at
+Leicester a nun who had taken no nourishment for seven years, and who
+lived only on the eucharist, which she took every Sunday, gave at first
+no faith to the story. He sent to her, however, fifteen clerks, with
+directions to watch her assiduously for fifteen days, never for an
+instant losing sight of her. The clerks reported to him that they had
+strictly obeyed his commands; that she had taken no nourishment, and
+that yet she nevertheless preserved her full strength and health.
+Whereupon the Bishop declared himself convinced, "as," adds Goerres, "it
+was proper for a sensible man to do."
+
+Among others of the holy persons who acquired the power of living on the
+sacramental bread, may be mentioned St. Catharine of Sienna, Saint Rose
+of Lima, Saint Collete, Saint Peter of Alcantara, and many others.
+
+But if saints and other holy people were able, through miraculous power,
+to live without food, the same ability was claimed for those who were
+under the influence of demons and devils. Goerres[2] states that a person
+possessed by a devil often loses all taste for food of any kind, and can
+retain no nourishment in his body. Another symptom is a disgust which
+is formed for the companionship of other persons. Thus a man was
+tormented by a demon, who forced him to fly into the forests, where he
+hid himself from mankind. One night he quit his house, and concealed
+himself in a cavern, remaining there entirely without food for sixteen
+days. Again he remained in the woods twenty-four days, neither eating
+nor drinking during this period. Finally his children found him, and
+taking him to a priest, had the devil exorcised, and he was cured.
+
+Saint Prosper, of Aquitaine, speaks of a young girl possessed by a
+devil, and who went seventy days without eating. Notwithstanding this
+long fast, she did not become emaciated, because every night at twelve
+o'clock a bird sent by the devil took a mysterious nourishment to her.
+
+An astonishing feature in the cases of the diabolical abstaining from
+food, is that, as in the holy instances, they exhibit various
+manifestations of hysteria. Goerres, with a charming degree of
+simplicity, details these symptoms and failing, under the influence of
+the predominant idea which fills him, to recognize their real character,
+ascribes them without hesitation to devilish agency. Thus he says:
+
+"The functions of the organs of nutrition are sometimes profoundly
+altered in the possessed, and these alterations are manifested by
+violent cramps, which show the extent to which the muscular system is
+affected. The hysterical lump in the throat is a frequent phenomenon in
+possession. A young girl in the Valley of Calepino had all her limbs
+twisted and contracted, and had in the [oe]sophagus a sensation as if a
+ball was sometimes rising in her throat, and again falling to her
+stomach. Her countenance was of an ashen hue, and she had a constant
+sense of weight and pain in the head. All the remedies of physicians had
+failed, and as evidences of possession were discovered in her, she was
+brought to Brignoli (a priest) who had recourse to supernatural means,
+and cured her."
+
+Strange to say, the ability to live on the eucharist, and to resist
+starvation by diabolical power, died out with the middle ages, and was
+replaced by the "fasting girls," who still continue to amuse us with
+their vagaries. To the consideration of some of the more striking
+instances of more recent times the attention of the reader is invited,
+in the confidence that much of interest in the study of the "History of
+Human Folly" will be adduced.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] La Mystique Divine, Naturelle et Diabolique. Paris, 1861. t. I., p.
+194, _et seq._
+
+[2] Op. cit. t. IV., p. 446.
+
+
+
+
+II.
+
+ABSTINENCE IN MODERN TIMES.
+
+
+Among the more striking cases under this head, is that of Margaret
+Weiss, a young girl ten years of age, who lived at Rode, a small village
+near Spires, and whose history has come down to us through various
+channels, but principally from Gerardus Bucoldianus,[3] who had the
+medical charge of her, and who wrote a little book describing his
+patient. Margaret is said to have abstained from all food and drink for
+three years, in the meantime growing, walking about, laughing, and
+talking like other children of her age. During the first year, however,
+she suffered greatly from pains in her head and abdomen, and, a common
+condition in hysteria--all four of her limbs were contracted. She passed
+neither urine nor faeces. Margaret, though only ten years old--hysteria
+develops the secretive faculties--played her part so well that, after
+being watched by the priest of the parish and Dr. Bucoldianus, she was
+considered free from all juggling, and was sent home to her friends by
+order of the King, "not," the doctor adds, "without great admiration and
+princely gifts." Although fully accepting the fact of Margaret's
+abstinence, Dr. Bucoldianus appears to have been somewhat staggered, for
+he asks very pertinently: "Whence comes the animal heat, since she
+neither eats nor drinks, and why does the body grow when nothing goes
+into it?"
+
+Schenckius[4] quotes from Paulus Lentulus the "Wonderful History of the
+Fasting of Appolonia Schreira, a virgin in Berne." Lentulus states that
+he was with this maid on three occasions, and that, by order of the
+magistrate of Berne, she was taken to that city and a strict guard kept
+upon her. All kinds of means were set in operation to detect imposture
+if any existed, but none was discovered, and she was set at liberty as a
+genuine case of ability to live without food. In the first year of her
+fasting she scarcely slept, and in the second year never closed her eyes
+in sleep; and so she continued for a long while after.
+
+Schenckius also advances the case of Katharine Binder, of the
+Palatinate, who was closely watched by a clergyman, a statesman, and two
+doctors of medicine, without the detection of fraud on her part. She was
+said to have taken nothing but air into her system for nine years and
+more, as Lentulus reported on the authority of Fabricius. This
+last-named physician told Lentulus of another case, that of a girl
+fourteen years old, who certainly had taken neither food nor drink for
+at least three years.
+
+"But," says Dr. Hakewel,[5] "the strangest that I have met with of this
+kind, is the history of Eve Fliegen, out of Dutch translated into
+English, and printed at London, _anno_ 1611, who, being born at Meurs,
+is said to have taken no kind of sustenance for the space of fourteen
+years together; that is, from the year of her age, twenty-two to
+thirty-six, and from the year of our Lord 1597 to 1611; and this we have
+confirmed by the testimony of the magistrates of the town of Meurs, as
+also by the minister who made trial of her in his house thirteen days
+together by all the means he could devise, but could detect no
+imposture." Over the picture of this maid, set in front of the Dutch
+copy, stand these Latin verses:
+
+    "Meursae haec quam cernis decies ter, sexque peregit,
+    Annos, bis septem prorsus non viscitur annis
+    Nec potat, sic sola sedet, sic pallida vitam
+    Ducit, et exigui se oblectat floribus horti."
+
+Thus rendered in the English copy:
+
+    "This maid of Meurs thirty and six years spent,
+    Fourteen of which she took no nourishment;
+    Thus pale and wan she sits sad and alone,
+    A garden's all she loves to look upon."
+
+Franciscus Citesius,[6] physician to the King of France and to Cardinal
+Richelieu, devotes a good deal of space and attention to the case of
+Joan Balaam, a native of the city of Constance. She was well grown, but
+of bad manners. About the eleventh year of her age she was attacked with
+a fever, and among other symptoms vomited for twenty days. Then she
+became speechless and so continued for twenty-four days. Then she
+talked, but her speech was raving and incoherent. Finally she lost all
+power of motion and of sensibility in the parts below the head and could
+not swallow. From thenceforth she could not be persuaded to take food.
+Six months afterwards she regained the use of her limbs, but the
+inability to swallow remained and she acquired a great loathing for all
+kinds of meat and drink. The secretions and excretions appeared to be
+arrested. Nevertheless she was very industrious, employing her time in
+running errands, sweeping the house, spinning, and such like. This maid
+continued thus fasting for the space of nearly three years, and then by
+degrees took to eating and drinking again.
+
+Before coming to more recent cases, there is one other to which I desire
+to refer for the reason mainly that in it there was probably organic
+disease in addition to fraud and hysteria. It is cited by Fabricius[7]
+and by Wanley. _Anno Dom._, 1595, a maid of about thirteen years was
+brought out of the dukedom of Juliers to Cologne, and there in a broad
+street at the sign of the White Horse exposed to the sight of as many as
+desired to see her. The parents of this maid affirmed that she had lived
+without any kind of food or drink for the space of three whole years;
+and this they confirmed by the testimony of divers persons, such as are
+worthy of credit. Fabricius observed her with great care. She was of a
+sad and melancholy countenance; her whole body was sufficiently fleshy
+except only her belly, which was compressed so as that it seemed to
+cleave to her back-bone. Her liver and the rest of her bowels were
+perceived to be hard by laying the hand on the belly. As for excrements,
+she voided none; and did so far abhor all kinds of food, that when one,
+who came to see her privately, put a little sugar in her mouth she
+immediately swooned away. But what was most wonderful was, that this
+maid walked up and down, played with other girls, danced, and did all
+other things that were done by girls of her age; neither had she any
+difficulty of breathing, speaking or crying out. Her parents declared
+that she had been in this condition for three years.
+
+A great many more to the same effect might be adduced, but the foregoing
+are sufficient to indicate the fact that belief in the possibility of
+such occurrences was quite general, and that if doubt did exist in
+regard to their real nature, it was not so strong as not readily to be
+overcome by the tricks and devices of hysterical women.
+
+In the following instances of more modern date the reader will perceive
+the view which is taken of them by physicians of the present day, and
+will doubtless discover their real nature.
+
+About sixty-five years ago, a woman of Sudbury, in Staffordshire,
+England, named Ann Moore, declared that she did not eat, and a number of
+persons volunteered to watch her, in order to ascertain whether or not
+she was speaking the truth. The watch was continued for three weeks and
+then the watchers, as in other instances, reported that Ann Moore was a
+real case of abstinence from food of all kinds. The Bible was always
+kept open on Ann's bed. Her emaciation was so extreme that it was said
+her vertebral column could be felt through the abdominal walls. This sad
+condition was asserted to have been caused by her washing the linen of a
+person affected with ulcers. From that time she experienced a dislike
+for food, and even nausea at the sight or mention of it.
+
+As soon as the watchers reported in favor of the genuineness of Ann's
+pretensions her notoriety increased, and visitors came from all parts of
+the country, leaving donations to the extent of two hundred and fifty
+pounds in the course of two years. Doubts, however, again arose, and,
+bold from the immunity she had experienced from the first investigation,
+Ann in an evil moment, for the continuance of her fraud, consented to a
+second watching. This committee was composed of notable persons, among
+them being Sir Oswald Mosley, Bart., Rev. Legh Richmond, Dr. Fox, and
+his son, and many other gentlemen of the country. Two of them were
+always in her room night and day. At the suggestion of Mr. Francis Fox,
+the bedstead, bedding, and the woman in it were placed on a weighing
+machine, and thus it was ascertained that she regularly lost weight
+daily. At the expiration of the ninth day of this strict watching, Dr.
+Fox found her evidently sinking and told her she would soon die unless
+she took food. After a little prevarication, the woman signed a written
+confession that she was an impostor, and had "occasionally taken
+sustenance for the last six years." She also stated that during the
+first watch of three weeks her daughter had contrived, when washing her
+face, to feed her every morning, by using towels made very wet with
+gravy, milk, or strong arrowroot gruel, and had also conveyed food from
+mouth to mouth in kissing her, which it is presumed she did very
+often.[8]
+
+In a clinical lecture delivered at St. George's Hospital,[9] Dr. John W.
+Ogle calls attention to the simulation of fasting as a manifestation of
+hysteria, and relates the following amusing case:
+
+"A girl strongly hysterical, aged twenty, in spite of all persuasion and
+medical treatment, refused every kind of food, or if made to eat, soon
+vomited the contents of the stomach. On November 6th, 1869, whilst the
+girl was apparently suffering in the same manner, the Queen passed the
+hospital on her way to open Blackfriars Bridge. She arose in bed so as
+to look out of the window, although up to this time declaring that every
+movement of her body caused intense pain. On December 29, the following
+letter in the girl's handwriting, addressed to another patient in the
+same ward, was picked up from the floor: 'My Dear Mrs. Evens,--I was
+very sorry you should take the trouble of cutting me such a nice piece
+of bread and butter, yesterday. I would of taken it but all of them saw
+you send it, and then they would have made enough to have talked about.
+But I should be very glad if you would cut me a nice piece of crust and
+put it in a piece of paper and send it, or else bring it, so that they
+do not see it, for they all watch me very much, and I should like to be
+your friend and you to be mine. Mrs. Winslow, (the nurse) is going to
+chapel. I will make it up with you when I can go as far. Do not send it
+if you cannot spare it. Good bye, and God bless you.' Although she
+prevaricated about this letter, she appears to have gradually improved
+from this time on, and one day walked out of the hospital and left it
+altogether. She subsequently wrote a letter to the authorities
+expressing her regret at having gone on as she did."
+
+One of the most remarkable instances of the kind, is that of Sarah
+Jacob, known as the "Welsh Fasting Girl," and whose history and tragical
+death excited a great deal of comment in the medical and lay press in
+Great Britain a few years ago. The following account of the case is
+mainly derived from Dr. Fowler's[10] interesting work.
+
+Sarah Jacob was born May 12th, 1857. Her parents were farmers and were
+uneducated, simple-minded, and ignorant persons. In her earlier years
+she had been healthy, was intelligent, given to religious reading, and
+was said to have written poetry of her own composition. She was a very
+pretty child and was, according to the testimony of the vicar, the Rev.
+Evan Jones, a "good girl."
+
+About February 15th, 1867, when she was not quite ten years of age, she
+complained of pain in the pit of the stomach, and one morning on getting
+up, she told her mother that she had found her mouth full of bloody
+froth. The pain continued, and medical attendance was obtained. Soon
+afterwards she had strong convulsions of an epileptiform character and
+then other spasms of a clearly hysterical form, during which her body
+was bent in the form of a bow as in tetanus, the head and heels only
+touching the bed. Then the muscular spasm ceased and she fell at full
+length on the bed. For a whole month she continued in a state of
+unconsciousness, suffering from frequent repetitions of severe
+convulsive attacks, during which time she took little food. Mr. Davies,
+the surgeon, said in his evidence, that she was for a whole month, in a
+kind of permanent fit, lying on her back, with rigidity of all the
+muscles. For some time her life was despaired of, then her fits ceased
+to be convulsive and consisted of short periods of loss of consciousness
+with sudden awakings. For the next two or three months (till August,
+1867) she took daily, from six, gradually decreasing to four, teacupfuls
+of rice and milk, or oatmeal and milk, which according to her father's
+account, was cast up again immediately and blood and froth with it.
+During this time the bowels were only acted on once in six or nine days.
+"Up to this time," said her father, "she could move both arms and one
+leg, but the other leg was rigid."
+
+By the beginning of October, 1867, her quantity of daily food had, it
+was affirmed, dwindled down to nothing but a little apple about the size
+of a pill, which she took from a tea-spoon. At this time she made water
+about every other day; she looked very bad in the face, but was not
+thin. On the tenth day of October, it was solemnly declared that she
+ceased to take any food whatever, and so continued till the day of her
+death, December 17th, 1869, a period of two years, two months, and one
+week.
+
+"Of the veracity of the assertion in respect of _the one week_," says
+Dr. Fowler, "there is unfortunately plenty of evidence. To the absurdity
+of believing in the barest possibility of twenty-six months absolute
+abstinence, it is sufficient to reply that when to our knowledge, she
+was completely deprived of food, the girl died! The parents most
+persistently impressed upon every private as well as official visitor,
+both before and during the last fatal watching, that the girl did not
+take food; that she could not swallow; that whenever food was mentioned
+to her she became as it were, excited; that when it was offered to her
+she would have a fit, or the offer would make her ill. The sworn
+testimony of the vicar, the Rev. Wm. Thomas, Sister Clinch, Ann Jones,
+and the other nurses, is sufficiently confirmative on this point.
+Furthermore, the parents went so far as to expressly forbid the mere
+mention of food in the girl's presence."
+
+Towards the end of October, 1867, the case had attracted so much
+attention that the inhabitants in the neighborhood first began visiting
+the marvellous little girl.
+
+"In the beginning of November of the same year, the Rev. Evan Jones,
+B.D., the vicar of the parish, was sent for by the parents to visit
+Sarah Jacob. He was at once--by the mother--told of the girl's wonderful
+fasting powers; it was admitted she took water occasionally. He was also
+informed of the extraordinary perversion of her natural functions (the
+suppression of urine and faecal evacuations.) He found her lying on her
+back in bed, which was covered with books. There was nothing then
+remarkable about her dress. The girl looked weak and delicate, though
+not pale, and answered only in monosyllables. 'The mother said her child
+was very anxious about the state of her soul, that it had such an effect
+upon her mind that she could not sleep.' I asked her myself if she had a
+desire to become a member of the Church of England? She said, 'Yes!' She
+continued to express that wish until July, 1869. At this time the
+reverend gentleman did not believe in the statements relative to the
+girl's abstinence. 'Every time,' he says, 'that I had a conversation
+with her up to the end of 1868, the parents both persisted that she
+lived without food, and continued their statements in January and
+February, 1869. I remonstrated with them and dwelt upon the apparent
+impossibility of the thing. They still persisted that it was a fact.'
+
+"Even as late as September, 1869, the vicar reiterated his ministerial
+remonstrances. When, in the beginning of the spring of 1869, he observed
+the fantastical changes the parents made in the girl's daily attire, he
+told them about the remarks made in the papers about this dressing and
+dwelt upon the impropriety of it. They replied, 'She had no other
+pleasure--they did not like denying it to her.' During the following
+summer, finding that the girl looked more plump in the face and that her
+general improvement was more conspicuous, he said, 'Sarah is evidently
+improving and gaining, and you say she takes no food; you are certainly
+imposing on the public.' I then dwelt on the sinfulness of continuing
+the fraud on the public. I said there were on record several cases of
+alleged fasting, some of which had been put to the test and had been
+discovered to be impositions; that those families would ever be held in
+execration by posterity, and such would be the case with them whenever
+this imposture was found out. The mother then assured me no imposition
+would be discovered in that house, because there was none."
+
+The father and mother both said that the Lord provided for her in a most
+natural way, and that it was a miracle. The father always talked about
+the "Doctor Mawr," meaning God Almighty; that she was supported by that
+"Big Doctor."
+
+Then soon began the custom of leaving money or other presents with the
+child, till at last every one who visited her, was expected to give
+something. Open house was kept and pilgrims came from near and far to
+see the wonderful girl who lived without food.
+
+When money was not forthcoming, presents of clothes, finery, books, or
+flowers, appear to have been substituted. Advantage was taken of these
+presents to bedeck the child in every variety of smartness. At one time
+she had a victorine about her neck and a wreath about her hair, then
+again, ornaments and a jacket on, and her hair neatly dressed with
+ribbons. At another time she had a silk shawl, a victorine around her
+neck, a small crucifix attached to a necklace, and little ribbons above
+the wrists. She had drab gloves on and her bed was nearly covered with
+books.
+
+Notwithstanding the alleged fasting, Sarah Jacob continued to improve in
+health.
+
+And now comes an astounding feature of this most remarkable case. The
+vicar became convinced that the instance was one of real abstinence. A
+little hysterical girl twelve years of age, by her perseverance in
+lying, had actually succeeded in inducing an educated gentleman to
+accept the truth of her statements! The following letter which was
+published on the 19th of February, 1869, speaks for itself:--
+
+                              "A STRANGE CASE.
+
+    "To the Editor of the _Welshman_.
+
+    "Sir: Allow me to invite the attention of your readers to a most
+    extraordinary case. Sarah Jacob, a little girl twelve years of age,
+    and daughter of Mr. Evan Jacob, Lletherneuadd, in this parish, has
+    not partaken of a single grain of any kind of food whatever, during
+    the last sixteen months. She did occasionally swallow a few drops of
+    water during the first few months of this period; but now she does
+    not even do that. She still looks pretty well in the face and
+    continues in the possession of all her mental faculties. She is in
+    this and several other respects, a wonderful little girl.
+
+    "Medical men persist in saying that the thing is quite impossible,
+    but all the nearest neighbors, who are thoroughly acquainted with
+    the circumstances of the case, entertain no doubt whatever of the
+    subject, and I am myself of the same opinion.
+
+    "Would it not be worth their while for medical men to make an
+    investigation into the nature of this strange case? Mr. Evan Jacob
+    would readily admit into his house any respectable person who might
+    be anxious to watch it and to see for himself.
+
+    "I may add, that Lletherneuadd is a farm-house about a mile from New
+    Inn, in this parish.
+
+                          "Yours faithfully,
+
+                                  "THE VICAR OF LLANFIHANGEL-AR-ARTH."
+
+The suggestions of the vicar relative to an investigation, were soon
+after afterwards acted upon by certain gentlemen of the neighborhood. A
+public meeting was called and a committee of watchers was appointed to
+be constantly in attendance in the room with Sarah Jacob, and to observe
+to the best of their ability, whether or not she took any food during
+the investigation. It was agreed that the watching was to continue for a
+fortnight.
+
+Prior to the beginning of this watching, no precautions were taken
+against food being conveyed into the room and concealed there. The
+parents actually debarred the watchers from touching the child's bed.
+The very first element of success was therefore denied, and no wonder
+that the whole affair was subsequently regarded as an absurdity. The
+watching consisted in two different men taking alternate watches from
+eight till eight. The watching to see whether the child partook of food,
+commenced on March 22d, and ended April 5th, 1869--a period of fourteen
+days.
+
+During the above fortnight, one of the watchers, in turn, was always
+close to her bed, and in her sight day and night, and at the time the
+bed was being made, which was generally every other morning, the four
+persons were always present and had every article thoroughly examined.
+The parents were allowed to go near the bed, as also was the little
+sister, six years old, who had been Sarah's constant companion and
+bed-fellow.
+
+On Wednesday, April 7th, 1869, a public meeting was held at the Eagle
+Inn, Llandyfeil, to hear the statements of the parents and of the
+several persons who had watched the child during the fourteen days. The
+parents briefly detailed the condition and symptoms of their daughter
+from the commencement of her illness. At no time during the whole
+fourteen days did the pulse ever reach above ninety per minute, although
+exceedingly changeable, as it always had been. The following evidence
+was received from the watchers, and it is _said_ that their statements
+were duly verified on oath before a magistrate:--
+
+Watcher No. 1 said: I, Evan Edward Smith, watched Sarah Jacob for two
+consecutive nights, (_i. e._, nights 22d and 23d of March) at the
+request of Mr. H. H. Davies, surgeon. The parents gave every facility to
+investigate the matter. I watched her with all possible care, and found
+nothing to suspect that food or drink was given her by foul means. I am
+quite sure she had nothing during my watch. I was dismissed on account
+of being suspected to doze on the second night.
+
+Watcher No. 2. This watcher watched Sarah Jacob for a whole fortnight,
+and found no indications that the child had anything to eat or drink. He
+was a college student, Daniel Harris Davies.
+
+Watcher No. 3. John Jones, a shopkeeper, gave similar evidence. He was a
+decided sceptic before he began watching, but after twelve days was
+thoroughly convinced of the fact that nothing in the shape of
+nourishment was given to the poor child. He watched every movement of
+all the inmates, and found nothing that would lead him to suspect that
+any nourishment was given to the little girl.
+
+Watcher No. 4. James Harris Davies, a medical student, spoke in like
+manner, and was perfectly positive that nothing had been given to her
+during the fortnight he had watched there, with the exception of three
+drops of water, once, to moisten her lips with. He was as great a
+sceptic as any one before he began watching, but as he saw nothing to
+confirm his suspicions, he could conscientiously say that nothing had
+been given her during his watch.
+
+Watcher No. 5. Evan Davies, of Powel Castle, who only watched her for
+one day, gave similar evidence, but as he was a neighbour he was
+dismissed for a stranger.
+
+Watcher No. 6. Herbert Jones, watched only one day, and spoke in a
+similar manner, and was dismissed on account of his credulity.
+
+Watcher No. 7. Thomas Davies, who had been the greatest sceptic of all,
+was strongly convinced. He watched Sarah Jacob twelve days, and was
+quite positive that nothing could have been given her during his watch.
+He watched her with all possible care, and was very cautious to be in a
+prominent place, where Sarah Jacob's mouth was always in sight.
+
+Evidence, however, was given which went to show that the watching was
+very imperfectly performed; that occasionally the watchers left before
+their time had expired; that intoxicating liquors were taken by them to
+the house, and that one of them was drunk while there. It was also shown
+that the father and mother had free access to the bed, while the
+watchers were absolutely prohibited from examining it. It is therefore
+with entire justification that Dr. Fowler states that the watching "was
+the greatest possible farce and mockery."
+
+After the report of the watchers the notoriety of Sarah Jacob of course
+became still greater; crowds came to visit her, and among others the
+Rev. Frederic Rowland Young went to see her, and made an unsuccessful
+effort to cure her by laying on of hands. When Dr. Fowler visited her,
+August 30th, 1869, on getting out at the nearest railway station, he was
+met by little boys bearing placards with the words "Fasting Girl," and
+"This is the shortest way to Llethernoryadd-ucha," on them. In his
+letter to the _Times_, giving an account of his visit, Dr. Fowler
+says:--
+
+"The first impression was most unfavorable, and to a medical man the
+appearances were most suspicious. The child was lying on a bed decorated
+as a bride, having around her head a wreath of flowers, from which was
+suspended a smart ribbon, the ends of which were joined by a small bunch
+of flowers, after the present fashion of ladies' bonnet strings. Before
+her, at proper reading distance, was an open Welsh book, supported by
+two other books on her body. The blanket covering was clean, tidy, and
+perfectly smooth. Across the fire-place, which was nearly opposite the
+foot of her bed, was an arrangement of shelves, well stocked with
+English and Welsh books, the gifts of various visitors to the house. The
+child is thirteen years of age, and is undoubtedly very pretty. Her face
+was plump, and her cheeks and lips of a beautiful rosy color. Her eyes
+were bright and sparkling, the pupils were very dilated, in a measure
+explicable by the fact of the child's head and face being shaded from
+the window-light by the projecting side of the cupboard bedstead. There
+was that restless movement and frequent looking out at the corners of
+the eyes so characteristic of simulative disease. Considering the
+lengthened inactivity of the girl, her muscular development was very
+good, and the amount of fat layer not inconsiderable. My friend stated
+that she looked even better than she did about a twelvemonth ago. There
+was a slight perspiration over the surface of the body. The pulse was
+perfectly natural, as were also the sounds of the lungs and heart, so
+far as I was enabled to make a stethoscopic examination. Having received
+permission to do this, I proceeded to make the necessary derangement of
+dress, when the girl went off into what the mother called a fainting
+fit. This consisted of nothing but a little and momentary hysterical
+crying and sobbing. The color never left the lips or cheeks. The pulse
+remained of the same power. Consciousness could have been but slightly
+diminished, inasmuch as on my then opening the eyelids I perceived a
+distinct upward and other movement of the eyeballs. Each percussion
+stroke of my examination, and even the pressure of the stethoscope,
+produced an expression of pain, which elicited a natural sympathy from
+the mother, and an assertion that a continuance of such examination
+would bring on further fits. On percussing the region of the stomach, I
+most distinctly perceived the sound of gurgling, which we know to be
+caused by the admixture of air and fluid in motion. The most positive
+assertion of the parents was subsequently made that saving a fortnightly
+moistening of her lips with cold water, the child had neither ate nor
+drank anything for the last twenty-three months. The whole region of the
+belly was tympanitic, and the muscular walls of this cavity were tense
+and drum-like--a condition not infrequently concomitant of a well-known
+class of nervous disorders. The child's intellectual faculties and
+special senses were perfectly healthy. Before her illness she was very
+much devoted to religious reading. This devotion has lately considerably
+increased. She is a member of the Church of England, and has been
+confirmed."
+
+Dr. Fowler then adds some other interesting particulars, all going to
+show the impossibility of the girl's being the subject of any exhausting
+disease, or of even having been continuously in bed, as her parents
+asserted, for nearly two years; and then says:--
+
+"The whole case is in fact one of simulative hysteria, in a young girl
+having the propensity to deceive very strongly developed. Therewith may
+be probably associated the power or habit of prolonged fasting. Both
+patient and mother admitted the occasional occurrence of the choking
+sensation called _globus hystericus_."
+
+This letter excited renewed discussion in the newspapers, and a second
+public meeting was called to make arrangements for a second watching. At
+this meeting it was decided to bring down from Guy's Hospital, London,
+several trained nurses, who were to conduct the watching; and the
+following resolutions were adopted, as expressing the terms under which
+the inquiry was to be conducted:--
+
+1. It would be advisable, before taking any steps in the matter, to
+obtain a written legal guarantee from the father of Sarah Jacob
+sanctioning the necessary proceedings. 2. That the duty of the nurses
+shall be to watch Sarah Jacob with a view to ascertain whether she
+partakes of any kind of food, and at the end of a fortnight to report
+upon the case before the local committee in Carmarthenshire, and, if
+required, at Guy's Hospital. 3. That two nurses shall be constantly
+awake and on the watch in the girl's room, night and day. 4. It would be
+advisable for the nearest medical practitioner to watch the progress of
+the case; and it will be absolutely necessary for him to _be prepared
+against any serious symptoms of exhaustion, supervening on the strict
+enforcement of the watching, and to act according to his judgment_. 5.
+That the room in which the girl sleeps shall be bared of all unnecessary
+furniture, and all possible places in the room for the concealment of
+food shall be closed and kept under the continual scrutiny of the
+watchers. 6. That if considered desirable by the local medical
+practitioner, or by the nurses, the bedstead on which the girl now lies
+shall be replaced by a single iron one. 7. That the bed on which the
+parents now sleep, in Sarah Jacob's room, shall be given up absolutely
+to the nurses. 8. That the parents be not allowed to sleep in the same
+room as the girl; that if they cannot at all times be prevented from
+approaching her, they should be previously searched (their pockets and
+other recesses of clothing as well as the interior of their mouths); and
+that no wetted towels or other such articles be allowed to be used about
+the girl by the parents, or any other person save the nurses; that the
+children of the family, and in fact every other person whatever (except
+the nurses), have similar restraints put upon them. 9. That the nurses
+have the sole management of preparing the room, bed, and patient, prior
+to the commencement of the watching. 10. That, as it is asserted the
+action of the bowels and bladder is entirely suspended, special
+attention must be directed to these organs.
+
+Four experienced women nurses were accordingly deputed from Guy's
+Hospital to take the entire charge of Sarah Jacob, and to watch her for
+fourteen days. They were instructed not to prevent her having food if
+she asked for it, but they were to see that she got none without their
+knowledge. On the 9th of December, 1869, at 4 P.M., the room was cleared
+of people and the watching began.
+
+In the first place it was ascertained that the girl had repeated
+evacuations of urine, and once, at least, of faeces.
+
+Gradually evidences of mental and physical disturbance began to appear.
+The watch was so closely kept that no food or drink reached the child,
+and she did not ask for any.
+
+"At 10 P.M.," to quote the language of the journal kept by the sister
+nurse, "she was restless and threw her arms about. She was very cold,
+and the nurses put warm flannels on her. This was the last day on which
+she passed urine."
+
+Thursday, December 16, 3 A.M.--She was rolling from one side of the bed
+to the other. At half-past three she wished the bed made, and they made
+it. She was looking very pale and anxious. Her eyes were sunk and her
+nose pinched, and the cheek bones were prominent. Her arms and hands
+were cold, her feet and legs were the same. Ann Jones, one of the
+nurses, says in her memoranda, "She was very restless and appeared to me
+to be sinking. Her lips were very dry, and her mouth seemed parched."
+The peculiar smell (the starvation smell) about the bed was so strong as
+to make the sister nurse quite ill.
+
+At 11 A.M., the vicar saw her and told the parents that the child was
+gradually failing, and suggested to them the propriety of sending the
+nurses away and giving her a chance to obtain food, but they refused,
+saying that there was nothing to do but what the nurses were doing, and
+that they had seen her quite as weak before. The parents were urged by
+others to give up the fight by sending the nurses away, but they refused
+on the ground that want of food had nothing to do with the symptoms, and
+that she would not eat whether the nurses were there or not.
+
+Ann Jones subsequently testified before the coroner: "Before one and two
+o'clock on Thursday afternoon (Dec. 16), she kept talking to herself. I
+could not understand whether she was speaking Welsh or English. Up to
+that time I could understand her. She pointed her fingers at some books;
+I gave her one, but she took no notice of it; she was not able to read
+it. _Both parents were then told the girl was dying._"
+
+Repeatedly they were begged to withdraw the nurses, and again and again
+they refused, saying there was no occasion--that she had often been in
+that way, that it was not from want of food, etc. The girl became weaker
+and weaker; low, muttering delirium ensued, and on the 17th of December,
+1869, at about half-past three o'clock, P.M., the "Welsh Fasting Girl"
+died, actually starved to death, in the middle of the nineteenth century
+and in one of the most Christian and civilized countries of the world!
+
+But this was not the end. Public opinion was much excited both against
+those who had sanctioned and conducted what appeared to have been a
+senseless and cruel experiment, and against the father and mother who
+had wilfully and persistently refused to allow food to be given to the
+dying child. A coroner's inquest was held, and the coroner appears to
+have made a very satisfactory charge to the jury after the rendition of
+the testimony. He said there could be no doubt of the child having died
+of starvation, and that the responsibility rested with the father, who
+had knowingly and designedly failed to cause his child to take food. The
+mother was not responsible unless it could be shown that she had been
+given food for the child by the father, and had withheld it from her. It
+was marvellous, he said, how the father could have made out such a
+story--such a hideous mass of nonsense, as he had under oath attempted
+to impose on the jury.
+
+The jury deliberated for a quarter of an hour, and then returned a
+verdict of "Died from starvation, caused by negligence to induce the
+child to take food on the part of the father;" which constituted
+manslaughter.
+
+Evan Jacob was therefore arrested. But the Secretary of State for the
+Home Department took the matter up and determined that the proceedings
+should go farther than the local authorities intended. At first it was
+contemplated to indict the members of the General Committee for
+conspiracy, but it was finally concluded to include only the medical
+gentlemen who had accepted the responsibility of superintending the
+watching, as well as both parents of the deceased child.
+
+The initial proceeding took place before a full bench of magistrates,
+and continued eight days. The Crown and the accused had eminent counsel,
+and many witnesses were examined. At the conclusion of the inquiry the
+presiding magistrate announced that it had been determined by the court
+that no case had been made out against the physicians, who had not been
+shown to have undertaken any other duty than that of advising the
+nurses, and that it did not appear that their advice had been asked. As
+to the father and mother the court had decided to send them both for
+trial for manslaughter, at the next assizes. In due time they were
+arraigned, they pleaded not guilty, but after being defended by able
+counsel, the jury, after an absence of about half an hour, returned with
+a verdict of guilty against both the prisoners, but with a
+recommendation of the mother to the merciful consideration of the court,
+on the ground that she was under the control of her husband. The man
+protested his innocence, and the woman "buried her face in her shawl and
+wept bitterly."
+
+His Lordship, in passing sentence, said: "Prisoners at the bar, you have
+been found guilty of a most aggravated offence. I entirely concur with
+the verdict which the jury have given, and I shall act upon the
+recommendation which they have presented in favor of the female
+prisoner, the mother, though, I must say, that I cannot but feel that it
+is a greater crime in the mother than the father, since it is more
+contrary to the common nature of mothers, to neglect their children in
+the manner in which you have treated this unfortunate child. It is
+contrary to the nature, even, of a father. But I shall act upon the
+recommendation of the jury, upon the ground they have put forward, that
+you have been subject to the control of your husband more than has
+appeared from the evidence of the case. But the offence is, as I have
+said, a serious one, on this ground; that there can be no doubt that
+both of you have persisted in this fraudulent deception, upon your
+neighbors, and upon the public, and that in order to carry out that
+fraudulent deception and to preserve yourselves from detection you were
+willing to risk the life of that child. The life of that child has been
+lost in that wicked experiment which you tried. Therefore, the sentence
+that I shall inflict on you, Evan Jacob, is, that you be imprisoned and
+kept at hard labor for twelve calendar months; and that upon you, Hannah
+Jacob, will be more lenient in consideration of the recommendation of
+the jury, and it is, that you be imprisoned and kept to hard labor for
+the period of six calendar months."
+
+Thus ended one of the most remarkable and interesting histories of human
+folly, credulity, and criminality which the present day has produced.
+Comment upon its teaching is scarcely necessary; but the thoughtful
+reader will not fail to perceive how important a bearing it has upon the
+whole subject of belief without full and free inquiry, and that how all
+the facts which science has gathered during ages of painful labor, go
+for naught, even with educated persons, when brought face to face with
+the false assertions of a hysterical girl, and of two ignorant and
+deceitful peasants. If there is any one thing we know, it is that there
+can be no force without the metamorphosis of matter of some kind. Here
+was a girl maintaining her weight--actually growing--her animal heat
+kept at its due standard, her mind active, her heart beating, her lungs
+respiring, her skin exhaling, her limbs moving whenever she wished them
+to move, and all, as very many persons supposed, without the ingestion
+of the material by which alone such things could be. And yet such is the
+tendency of the average human mind to be deceived, that it would be
+perfectly possible to re-enact in the city of New York the whole tragedy
+of Sarah Jacob, should ever a hysterical girl take it into head to do
+so; and there would not be wanting, even from among those who might read
+this history, individuals who would credit any monstrous declarations
+she might make. Even now in a little town in Belgium, an ecstatic girl
+is going through the same performance with extraordinary additions, and
+books are written by learned physicians and theologians, with the object
+of establishing the truth of her pretensions. To this most remarkable
+instance, and one other of similar though perhaps even more remarkable
+characteristic, the attention of the reader will presently be invited.
+But in view of these things one is almost tempted to say with Cardinal
+Carafa, "_Quandoquidem populus decipi vult, decipiatur_."
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[3] "De puella quae sine cibo et potu vitam transigit." Parisiis Ann.
+MDXLII.
+
+[4] "{Paratereseon} sive observationum medicarum, rararum, novarum,
+admirabilium, et monstrosarum. Volumen, tomis septem de toto homine
+institutum." Lugduni 1606, p. 306.
+
+These cases are cited by Wanley in his "Wonders of the Little World,"
+but I have taken care in most instances to refer to the originals,
+several of which are in my library.
+
+[5] "Wonders of the Little World." London, 1806, p. 375.
+
+[6] Opuscula Medica. Parisiis, 1639, pp. 64, 65, 66.
+
+[7] Observationum et curationum chirurgicarum, centuria secunda. Genevae,
+1611, p. 116.
+
+[8] Wonderful Characters: By Henry Wilson and James Caulfield. London.
+
+[9] British Medical Journal, July 16, 1870.
+
+[10] A complete History of the Welsh Fasting Girl (Sarah Jacob,) with
+Comments thereon, and Observations on Death from Starvation. London,
+1871.
+
+
+
+
+III.
+
+ABSTINENCE FROM FOOD WITH STIGMATIZATION.
+
+
+One hundred and fifty-three persons have at one time or another,
+according to Dr. Imbert-Gourbeyre,[11] received the stigmata; that is,
+been marked in a miraculous manner with the wounds received by Christ at
+the crucifixion. Of these, eight, are according to the same authority
+now living, and two assert that they do not eat. I propose to consider
+at some length the main points in the histories of these two, Palma
+d'Oria and Louise Lateau, and in so doing I shall avail myself of the
+works of those, who are firm believers in the miraculous interposition
+of God to produce the effects, of which they are said to be the
+subjects. These cases are very little known in this country. Instances
+of the kind are extremely rare among practical common sense nations,
+like those inhabiting the British Isles, and their descendants in
+America. Of the whole one hundred and fifty-three cases recorded by Dr.
+Imbert-Gourbeyre, but one--Jane Gray--was British, and hers is the most
+doubtful case in the list, for the fact rests only on the testimony of
+one Thomas Bourchier, an English minor brother, who asserts that she had
+the stigmata in the feet. Of the remainder, the very large majority are
+of Italy, and as Dr. Imbert-Gourbeyre says:
+
+"Quel pays fut jamais si fertile en miracles?"[12]
+
+To the account of a visit made to Oria for the purpose of studying the
+phenomena exhibited by Palma, made by Dr. Imbert-Gourbeyre, I am
+indebted for the following details:
+
+Palma, at the time of the visit in 1871, was sixty-six years old,
+hump-backed, thin, small, and with light, expressive eyes. For several
+years she had not left the house, and was, on account of her sufferings,
+scarcely able to walk. Occasionally, when she felt particularly well,
+she took a few steps about the room supported by a cane. In her youth
+she had been very strong and active.
+
+At the first interview, after some conversation in the course of which
+Palma declared that she had often seen Louise Lateau while in ecstasy,
+the doctor directed the conversation towards the subject of
+hallucination. While thus engaged and seated close to Palma, he felt her
+strike him gently on the arm, and at the same time saw the abbe, who had
+come with him, fall on his knees. He turned toward Palma; her eyes were
+closed, her hands clasped, her mouth wide open, and on her tongue he saw
+the host--the body of Christ. Immediately, he fell on his knees also,
+and worshipped it. Palma protruded her tongue still farther, as if she
+wanted to give him every opportunity of seeing that the host was really
+there; then she ate it, closed her mouth and remained perfectly quiet on
+the sofa upon which she was reclining. It was then almost four o'clock
+in the afternoon, the day was fading, the room was badly lit by a little
+window, high from the floor. The miraculous host appeared to him to be
+as white as wax, and somewhat thick. On account of the little light, and
+the short time that this extraordinary communion lasted, he was unable
+to determine whether or not it was marked according to the custom of the
+church.
+
+In regard to this wonderful event--that is, if it be not a fact viewed
+unequally--it is further to be said that Palma disclosed to Dr.
+Imbert-Gourbeyre, that two or three times, the holy element, which be it
+remembered is believed by the great majority of Christians to be the
+real body of Christ, was brought to her by the devil, and that then she
+refused it. Sometimes he had the figure of an angel, but she knew him by
+the sign of reprobation which he wore on his forehead--a little horn.
+Moreover she saw that the wicked creature hesitated, and was a little
+embarrassed. She intoned the _Gloria Patri_, and made the sign of the
+cross, and he instantly took flight and disappeared. In order to
+ascertain what it all meant, her confessor forbade her to receive the
+miraculous communion for eight days. Hardly had that period expired when
+Jesus Christ himself brought her the communion. Before giving it to her
+he made her recite the _Gloria Patri_ three times. Then he said to her,
+"Have I fled as the demon did? No. Therefore reassure yourself. It is
+really I."
+
+These miraculous circumstances had been going on for about two years
+when Dr. Imbert-Gourbeyre made his visit to Palma. Sometimes it was
+brought to her by Christ, as in the instance specified, or by some
+saint, as St. Peter, St. Vincent de Paul, St. Francis d'Assisi, in the
+company of her guardian angel, and other saints and angels. At other
+times it was brought by priests and confessors of the olden time, long
+since dead.
+
+An Italian bishop stated, that at the moment of the miraculous sacrament
+on one occasion, he had seen the host flying through the air before
+entering Palma's mouth, but the doctor questioned her attendant on this
+point, and she declared that she had not seen that, and she assured him
+that the host was never seen by any one till it rested on Palma's
+tongue. The doctor inclines to the belief that the attendant was right,
+but he states that nevertheless a French apostolic missionary had
+asserted that he had seen the same thing.
+
+Well, if the consecrated bread be really the body of Christ that was
+given for the salvation of the world, what horrible blasphemy to state
+such things of it, what vileness to believe them, what a barefaced
+imputation on the reason of man to spread these shocking details before
+him and ask him to accept them as true of the God he worships!
+
+After witnessing the communion, Dr. Imbert-Gourbeyre was requested to
+withdraw into the adjoining room, while Palma got ready for her other
+performances. In a few minutes he was informed that all was in order.
+One of the women went in first and returning immediately, the others
+were invited to enter. The stigmatization had already begun on the
+forehead. He saw a stream of blood flowing from the left frontal
+eminence along the side of the nose. A handkerchief was given to Palma;
+she held it to her nose for a moment and the haemorrhage soon stopped. He
+examined the blood and found that it did not differ in appearance, color
+or temperature from ordinary blood. He then examined the handkerchief,
+and besides numerous rotund spots he perceived other figures resembling
+hearts, with stains of blood proceeding from them, indicating the flames
+of love. All this appeared to him to be very extraordinary, for though
+he had often seen people bleed from the nose, he had never seen them
+bleed like that.
+
+After this incident Palma continued the performances--_actions de grace_
+he calls them--her hands clasped and her eyes closed. In the lower
+limbs, especially the left, there was a tremor like a nervous trembling
+which was soon quieted. After a few minutes she rubbed her hands
+together, made the sign of the cross and returned naturally to the
+conversation. He then examined her forehead and endeavored to ascertain
+where the blood had come from. The skin was intact without the least
+opening. She showed him above the right frontal eminence a hole in the
+cranium, from which at a former period, five little pieces of bone had
+been discharged. The opening was entirely covered over by the scalp, and
+he was surprised to find that there was no cicatrix. It was round, the
+end of his index finger entered it readily, and it was just such an
+opening as would have been produced by the crown of a trephine. At the
+time it was made, the skin opened to allow of the exit of the pieces of
+bone; then it closed without leaving the trace of a scar. It was the
+same with the stigmata. They closed at once without there being any
+marks to indicate the place whence the blood had flowed. This hole in
+the skull had been caused by some particular circumstances that no one
+was willing to reveal to him, but which he says are reported in the
+journal of the directors of this woman, and which will soon be
+published. Most medical men will come to the conclusion that it was due
+to caries and necrosis of the bone, of syphilitic origin.
+
+During another visit Palma told Dr. Imbert-Gourbeyre that she had eaten
+nothing for seven years, but that she was obliged to drink frequently on
+account of the great internal heat, which like a fire consumed her. She
+then drank in his presence two carafes of water at one time, and the
+doctor states that "this water became so hot in her stomach that it was
+vomited boiling. She also had often ejected from her mouth oil, and
+another fluid of a balsamic character, in which, on standing for some
+time, bodies resembling the consecrated host were formed."
+
+The doctor then relates the following details, which I give in his own
+words, in further illustration of the character of his mental
+organization and of the pretensions put forth by the woman, whose word
+seems to have been sufficient to convince him of anything at all, no
+matter how preposterous. Four years previously he had been so
+unfortunate as to lose by death his eldest child:
+
+"A year after his death, I had met a woman of great renown for piety,
+and who was even regarded as a receiver of celestial communications. I
+had commended my poor Joseph to her. Some time after she assured me that
+my son was saved, and that he was in paradise. She declared that in a
+vision she had seen him near our Lord; he was happy. Various
+circumstances, which it is useless to mention here, had caused me to
+believe in the truth of this asserted revelation. Being in Oria, I
+wished to have as much certainty as possible in regard to the matter,
+and as I knew that Palma was in spiritual communication with many pious
+souls scattered over the earth, I said to her in the course of our
+conversation, 'tell me, Palma, do you know M. ---- de X----,' giving her
+the baptismal name of the woman in question. 'No sir,' she answered. I
+then related to her my history in detail, taking care not to ask her
+opinion in advance, although I felt sure that she would explain the
+thing to me. She listened with the utmost attention to the superioress
+who translated my words, and when Mother Becaud came to say that the
+woman had had a vision of my son, and that he was in paradise, Palma
+stretched out her arm in a solemn manner as a sign of negative, and said
+to me, 'He is saved, but he is still in purgatory.'
+
+"'Is it possible? Palma,' I cried, profoundly moved: 'Since you tell me
+this, you are in conscience bound to get him out of that place of
+expiation as soon as possible, and I commend him immediately to your
+prayers.'
+
+"'Yes, sir,' she said, 'I will pray for him, and when I am sure of his
+deliverance, I will send you word by Father de Pace.'
+
+"The following morning at my visit I again commended my poor child to
+Palma, and on the following Friday evening on taking leave of her, I
+asked if she had prayed that morning for my son, 'No sir,' she answered.
+'I will only do so on the day of All Saints.' 'Then,' said I to Palma,
+'will you allow madame the superioress to take the answer?' 'Very
+willingly,' said the seeress. On the 7th of November, I received at Nice
+the following letter:
+
+    "'SIR,
+
+    "'I have fulfilled the promise which I made to you in accordance
+    with your wish to go to Palma on All Saints Day, in order to
+    ascertain whether or not your wishes in regard to your son had been
+    granted. That good soul assured me twice that he had gone to heaven
+    that very morning, God be praised a thousand times!
+
+    "'Thus sir, I have done what I could for your consolation.
+
+                          "'I have the honor to be, etc.
+
+                                               "'Sister Marie Becaud.'
+
+"This letter was post marked at Oria, November 2d."
+
+I should not venture to insult the intelligence of the reader with these
+idiotic details but for the reasons stated, and additionally, that they
+carry conviction with them to thousands of minds, honest doubtless, but
+which are accustomed to grovel in superstition, and falsehood, which
+they are unable to test by right standards.
+
+A phase in Palma's spiritual pathology has been alluded to cursorily,
+but has not yet been considered with the fulness proper in connection
+with stigmatization, and that is the occurrence of haemorrhagic spots on
+various parts of her body, and which she so managed as to convey the
+idea that they were symbolical of various holy things. On the back of
+her hand she convinced Dr. Imbert-Gourbeyre that she bled in the shape
+of the cross, and he gives a wood-cut representing a cross on the dorsum
+of the hand, a little above the space between the first and second
+fingers. This is surrounded by other rectilinear figures. On her breast
+and back, other figures were obtained by placing handkerchiefs on the
+parts. The doctor thus procured several mementoes of his visit, in the
+shape of pieces of linen stained with spots of blood somewhat resembling
+hearts, with flames coming out of them, suns, roses, crosses, etc. He
+gives several plates in his book representing these figures, of the
+reality of the miraculous formation of which he has not the slightest
+doubt.
+
+Another phenomenon has also been mentioned incidentally, and that is the
+intense heat which Palma declared she felt, and which the doctor refers
+to as the "divine fire." He had brought with him from Paris, a
+thermometer to use in determining the extraordinary temperature of this
+fire. He examined her with this instrument while she felt this divine
+fire, but failed to find any abnormal increase; her pulse at the time
+was 72. "I made this experiment," he says, "to satisfy my scientific
+conscience, [God save the mark!] but I ought to say that I was ashamed
+of myself for presuming to measure this divine fire by such an
+instrument." He is right, science is not for him, or those like him.
+
+On one occasion while Palma was in ecstasy, Antonietta, who was near
+her, laid bare her chest a little, and cried with enthusiasm, "she is
+burning!" Dr. Imbert-Gourbeyre approached and smelt something like the
+burning of linen. The dress was opened and her chemise was found to be
+burnt on the left side just over the collar bone, and immediately below
+this, scorched in the shape of "a magnificent emblem representing a
+monstrance. The fire was invisible, but its traces were very evident."
+
+In a note he states that it was affirmed that Palma's temperature on
+similar occasions had reached 100 deg. centigrade, (212 deg. Fahrenheit) a fact
+which he does not doubt, although his thermometer did not show it. "That
+her chemise," he says, "burnt by invisible fire, which escaped the
+thermometer, was more extraordinary than if the instrument had indicated
+a temperature of 100 deg.."
+
+I shall not stop now to comment further on the circumstances detailed by
+Dr. Imbert-Gourbeyre, and of which I have cited but a small part. I will
+only say at present that science and common sense would conclude in
+regard to Palma d'Oria,
+
+1st. That she had probably at a former period contracted syphilis.
+
+2d. That she was strongly hysterical.
+
+3d. That she was the subject of purpura haemorrhagica.
+
+4th. That she was a most unmitigated humbug and liar.
+
+And now we come to the consideration of a case of stigmatization which
+has greatly stirred both the theological and the scientific world of
+Europe--that of Louise Lateau--and here again I shall draw largely,
+though by no means exclusively, from the works of the believers in the
+miraculous production of the phenomena manifested.[13]
+
+Louise Lateau was born at Bois-d'Haine, a small village in Belgium, on
+the 30th of January, 1850. She was reared in the utmost poverty, was
+chlorotic, and did not menstruate till she was eighteen years old. She
+loved solitude and silence, and when not engaged in work--and she does
+not appear to have labored much--she spent her time in meditation and
+prayer. She was subject to paroxysms of ecstasy, during which, as many
+other ecstasies, she spoke very edifying things, of charity, poverty,
+and the priesthood. She saw St. Ursula, St. Roch, St. Theresa, and the
+Holy Virgin. Persons who saw her in these states declared that, while
+lying on the bed, her whole body was raised up more than a foot high,
+the heels alone being in contact with the bed.
+
+The stigmatization ensued very soon after these seizures. On a Friday
+she bled from the left side of her chest. On the following Friday this
+flow was renewed, and in addition, blood escaped from the dorsal
+surfaces of both feet; and on the third Friday, not only did she bleed
+from the side and feet, but also from the dorsal and palmar surface of
+both hands. Every succeeding Friday the blood flowed from these places,
+and finally other points of exit were established on the forehead and
+between the shoulders.
+
+At first these bleedings only took place at night, but after two or
+three months they occurred in the daytime, and were accompanied by
+paroxysms of ecstasy, during which she was insensible to all external
+impressions, and acted the passion of Jesus and the crucifixion.
+
+M. Warlomont, being commissioned by the Royal Academy of Medicine of
+Belgium to examine Louise Lateau, went to her house, accompanied by
+several friends, and made a careful examination of her person. At that
+time, Friday morning at six o'clock, the blood was flowing freely from
+all the stigmata. In a few moments the sacrament would be brought to
+her, and then the second act of the drama would begin. The scene that
+followed can be best described in M. Warlomont's own words:
+
+"It is a quarter-past six. 'Here comes the communion,' said M. Niels [a
+priest], 'kneel down.' Louise fell on her knees on the floor, closed her
+eyes and crossed her hands, on which the communion-cloth was extended. A
+priest, followed by several acolytes, entered; the penitent put out her
+tongue, received the holy wafer, and then remained immovable in the
+attitude of prayer.
+
+"We observed her with more care than seemed to have been hitherto given
+to her at similar periods. Some thought that she was simply in a state
+of meditation, from which she would emerge in the course of half an hour
+or so. But it was a mistake. Having taken the communion, the penitent
+went into a special state. Her immobility was that of a statue, her eyes
+were closed; on raising the eyelids the pupils were seen to be largely
+dilated, immovable, and apparently insensible to light. Strong pressure
+made upon the parts in the vicinity of the stigmata caused no sensation
+of pain, although a few moments before they were exquisitely tender.
+Pricking the skin gave no evidence of the slightest sensibility. A limb,
+on being raised, offered no resistance, and sank slowly back to its
+former position. Anaesthesia was complete, unless the cornea remained
+still impressionable. The pulse had fallen from 120 to 100 pulsations.
+At a given moment I raised one of the eyelids, and M. Verriest quickly
+touched the cornea. Louise at once seemed to recover herself from a
+sound sleep, arose and walked to a chair, upon which she seated herself.
+'This time,' I said, 'we have wakened her.' 'No,' said M. Niels, looking
+at his watch, 'it was time for her to awake.'"
+
+She remained conscious; the blood still continued to flow; the
+anaesthesia had ceased, her pulse rose to 120, and at the end of half an
+hour she was herself. "Our first visit ended here. At half-past eleven
+we made another. The poor child had resumed her attitude of extreme
+suffering, against which she contended with all the energy that remained
+to her. The wounds in the hands still continued to bleed. M. Verriest
+auscultated with care the lungs, heart, and great vessels, and found the
+_bruit de souffle_, which he had detected in the morning at the apex of
+the heart and over the carotids. The handle of a spoon pressed against
+the velum, the base of the tongue, and the pharynx, provoked no effort
+at vomiting. The glasses of our spectacles, as they came in contact with
+the air expired, were covered with vapor. As the patient appeared to
+suffer from our presence, we went away.
+
+"We made our third visit at two o'clock. There were still fifteen
+minutes before the beginning of the ecstatic crisis, which always took
+place punctually at a quarter past two and ended at about half past
+four. The pupils at this time were slightly contracted, the eyelids were
+almost entirely closed; the eyes, looking at nothing, were veiled from
+our view. We tried in vain to attract her attention; her mind was
+otherwise engaged, and her pains were evidently becoming more intense.
+At exactly a quarter past two her eyes became fixed in a direction above
+and to the right. The ecstasy had begun.
+
+"The time had now come to introduce those who were prompted by
+curiosity. This could now be done without inconvenience, for the
+ecstatic, for the ensuing two hours, would be lost to the appreciation
+of what might be passing around her. The room crowded, could hold about
+ten persons, but enough were allowed to enter to make the total
+twenty-five. These placed themselves in two ranks, of which the front
+one kneeling, allowed the rear ones to see all that was going on. All
+this was done under the direction of M. le Cure, who took every pains to
+give us a good view of what was going to happen.
+
+"Louise was seated on the edge of her chair; her body, inclined forward,
+seemed to wish to follow the direction of her eyes, which did not look,
+but were fixed on vacancy. Her eyes were opened to their fullest
+extent, of a dull, lustreless appearance, turned above and to the right,
+and of an absolute immobility. A few workings of the lids were now
+observed and became more frequent if the eyelids were touched. The
+pupils, largely dilated, showed very little sensibility to light, and
+all that remained of vision was shown by slight winking when the hand
+was suddenly brought close to the eyes. The whole face lacked
+expression. At certain moments, either spontaneously or as a consequence
+of divers provocations, a light smile, to which the muscles of the face
+generally did not contribute, wandered over her lips. Then the face
+resumed its primitive expression, and thus she remained for the
+half-hour which constituted the 'first station.'
+
+"The 'second station' was that of genuflection. It had failed at one
+time, but had again appeared. The young girl fell on her knees, clasped
+her hands, and remained for about a quarter of an hour in the attitude
+of contemplation. Then she arose and again resumed her sitting posture.
+
+"The 'third station' began at three o'clock. Louise inclined herself a
+little forward, raised her body slowly, and then extended herself at
+full length, face downward, on the floor. There was neither rigidity nor
+extreme precipitation; nothing in fact, calculated to produce injuries.
+The knees first supported her body, then it rested on these and the
+elbows, and finally her face was brought in actual close contact with
+the tiled floor. At first the head rested on the left arm, but very soon
+the patient made a quick and sudden movement, and the arms were extended
+from the body in the form of a cross. At the same time the feet were
+brought together so that the dorsum of the right was in contact with
+the sole of the left foot. This position did not vary for an hour and a
+half. When the end of the crisis approached, the arms were brought close
+to the sides of the body, then suddenly the poor girl rose to her knees,
+her face turns to the wall, her cheeks become colored, her eyes have
+regained their expression, her countenance expands, and the ecstasy is
+at an end."
+
+Further particulars are given, and an apparatus was constructed and
+applied to Louise's hand and arm so as to prevent any external
+excitation of the haemorrhage. It was apparently shown that there was no
+such interference, for the blood began to flow at the usual time on
+Friday.
+
+In addition to the stigmata and the paroxysms of ecstasy, Louise
+declared that she did not sleep, had eaten or drank nothing for four
+years, had had no faecal evacuation for three years and a half, and that
+the urine was entirely suppressed.
+
+M. Warlomont examined the blood and products of respiration chemically,
+and satisfied himself of their normal character, except that the former
+contained an excessive amount of white corpuscles.
+
+When being closely interrogated, Louise admitted that, though she did
+not sleep, she had short periods of forgetfulness at night. On M.
+Warlomont suddenly opening a cupboard in her room, he found it to
+contain fruit and bread, and her chamber communicated directly with a
+yard at the back of the house. It was therefore perfectly possible for
+her to have slept, eaten, defecated, and urinated, without any one
+knowing that she did so.
+
+The conclusions arrived at by M. Warlomont were, that the
+stigmatizations and ecstasies of Louise Lateau were real and to be
+explained upon well-known physiological and pathological principles,
+that she "worked, and dispensed heat, that she lost every Friday a
+certain quantity of blood by the stigmata, that the air she expired
+contained the vapor of water and carbonic acid, that her weight had not
+materially altered since she had come under observation. She consumes
+carbon and it is not from her own body that she gets it. Where does she
+get it from? Physiology answers, 'She eats.'"
+
+Relative to the assumed abstinence in the cases of Palma d'Oria, Louise
+Lateau and other subjects of ecstasy and stigmata, it is not necessary,
+in view of the remarks already made on this subject in a previous
+chapter, to devote further consideration to it here. The conclusion
+arrived at by M. Warlomont is the only one which science can tolerate.
+Should Louise Lateau or Palma d'Oria ever be subjected to as close
+watching as was the poor little Welsh Fasting Girl, Sarah Jacob, it will
+certainly terminate as badly for them as for her, unless they yield to
+the demands of nature and take the food which the organism requires.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[11] Les Stigmatisees; Palma d'Oria, etc. 2d Edition, Paris, 1873, p.
+263.
+
+[12] Op. cit., t. ii.
+
+[13] For the theological view of this remarkable case the reader is
+referred to the following works, a part only of those written in support
+of her pretensions. "Louise Lateau de Bois-d'Haine, sa vie, ses extases,
+ses stigmates: etude Medicale," par le Dr. Lefebvre, Louvain, 1873. "Les
+stigmatisees; Louise Lateau, etc.," par le Docteur A. Imbert-Gourbeyre,
+Paris, 1873. "Biographie de Louise Lateau," par H. Van Looy, Tournai,
+Paris and Leipzig, 1874. "Louise Lateau de Bois-d'Haine etc.," par le
+Dr. A. Rohling, Paris, 1874. "Louise Lateau, ihr Wunderleben u.s.w.,"
+Von Paul Majunke, Berlin, 1875.
+
+Among the treatises in which the miracle is denied, and the phenomena
+attributed to either disease or fraud are; "Louise Lateau; Rapport
+Medical sur la stigmatisee de Bois-d'Haine, fait a l'academie royale de
+medecine de Belgique," par le Dr. Warlomont, Bruxelles and Paris, 1875.
+"Science et miracle, Louise Lateau, ou la stigmatisee Belge," par le Dr.
+Bourneville, Paris, 1875. "Les Miracles," par M. Virchow, Revue des
+cours scientifiques, January 23rd 1875.
+
+
+
+
+IV.
+
+THE BROOKLYN CASE.
+
+
+For several years past there have been rumors more or less definite in
+character that a young lady in Brooklyn was not only living without
+food, but was possessed of some mysterious faculty by which she could
+foretell events, read communications without the aid of the eyes, and
+accurately describe occurrences in distant places, through clairvoyance
+or whatever other name may be applied to the influence.
+
+Finally, in the _New York Herald_ of October 20th, 1878, appeared an
+account, headed "Life without Food. An Invalid Lady who for fourteen
+years has lived without nourishment." As this account is apparently
+authentic, and as the statements made have never been contradicted, I do
+not hesitate to quote from it. Some of the letters which have appeared
+in response to a proposition I offered, and to which fuller reference
+will presently be made, have accused me of dragging the young lady
+before the public. It will be seen, however, that her friends and
+physicians are responsible for all the publicity given to the case.
+
+Leaving out of consideration for the present the alleged marvellous
+endowments of this young lady, as regards seeing without her eyes,
+second sight, etc., I quote from the _Herald_ the essential points
+relative to her clinical history and abstinence from food:
+
+"In a modest, secluded house at the corner of Myrtle Avenue and Downing
+Street, Brooklyn, lives an invalid lady afflicted with paralysis, with a
+history so remarkable and extraordinary that, notwithstanding it is
+vouched for by physicians of standing, it is almost incredible. It is
+claimed that for a period of nearly fourteen years she has lived
+absolutely without food or nourishment of any kind. The case has been
+kept by the family of the patient a well guarded secret, it having led
+them to a strict seclusion as the only means of protection against the
+visits of the curious and incredulous.
+
+"The name of the remarkable person is Miss Mollie Fancher. To the half
+dozen medical gentlemen who have seen and attended her, her case is
+inexplicable. To learn the history of the strange case a _Herald_
+reporter yesterday called on several persons familiar with the facts.
+The first person seen was Dr. Ormiston, of No. 74 Hanson Place,
+Brooklyn, who attended her. He said:--'It seems incredible, but from
+everything I can learn Mollie Fancher never eats. The elder Miss
+Fancher, her aunt, who takes care of her, is a lady of the highest
+intelligence. She was at one time quite wealthy, and she has at present
+a comfortable income. I have every reason to believe that her statements
+are in every detail reliable. During a dozen visits to the sick chamber
+I have never detected evidence of the patient having eaten a morsel.'"
+
+After interviewing a lady intimate with the family, the reporter sought
+out Dr. Speir, the attending physician of the patient, and thus details
+his experience with that gentleman:
+
+"Dr. Speir was found in his comfortable little office, and the errand of
+the writer made known:--
+
+"'Is it true, Doctor, that a patient of yours has lived for fourteen
+years without taking food?'
+
+"'If you refer to Miss Fancher, yes. She became my patient in 1864. Her
+case is a most remarkable one.'
+
+"'But has she eaten nothing during all these years?'
+
+"'I can safely say she has not.'
+
+"'Are the family also willing to vouch for the truth of this
+extraordinary statement?'
+
+"'You will find them very reticent to newspaper men and to strangers
+generally. I do not believe any food--that is, solids--ever passed the
+woman's lips since her attack of paralysis, consequent upon her mishap.
+As for an occasional teaspoonful of water or milk, I sometimes force her
+to take it by using an instrument to pry open her mouth, but that is
+painful to her. As early as 1865 I endeavored to sustain life in this
+way, for I feared that, in obedience to the universal law of nature, she
+would die of gradual inanition or exhaustion, which I thought would
+sooner or later ensue; but I was mistaken. The case knocks the bottom
+out of all existing medical theories, and is, in a word, miraculous.'
+
+"'Did you ever,' asked the reporter, 'make an experiment to satisfy your
+professional accuracy in regard to her abstinence?'
+
+"'Several times I have given her emetics on purpose to discover the
+truth; but the result always confirmed the statement that she had taken
+no food. It sounds strangely, but it is so. I have taken every
+precaution against deception, sometimes going into the house at eleven
+or twelve o'clock at night, without being announced, but have always
+found her the same, and lying in the same position occupied by her for
+the entire period of her invalidity. The springs of her bedstead are
+actually worn out with the constant pressure. My brethren in the medical
+profession at first were inclined to laugh at me, and call me a fool and
+spiritualist when I told them of the long abstinence and keen mental
+powers of my interesting patient. But such as have been admitted to see
+her are convinced. These are Dr. Ormiston, Dr. Elliott and Dr.
+Hutchison, some of the best talent in the city, who have seen and
+believed.'"
+
+And then the following account is given of the accident from which the
+young lady suffered, and to which the remarkable phenomena she is said
+to exhibit are ascribed:
+
+"The story of Miss Fancher's accident and its melancholy consequences is
+quite affecting. It is collected from the various statements given by
+half a dozen friends of the family to the _Herald_ reporter. Interwoven
+with it is a thread of romance, a tale of early love and courtship, of a
+life embittered by a cruel accident, of patient waiting, and a final
+release of the suitor from his engagement to marry another.
+
+"Mary's parents live in a sumptuous dwelling on Washington Avenue,
+Brooklyn, and were reported to be wealthy. Their favorite daughter
+Mollie, as she was called, was sent to Prof. West's High School in
+Brooklyn at an early age, and here developed many brilliant qualities of
+mind and heart, which augured well for her future. At seventeen she was
+pretty, petite and well cultivated. As a member of the Washington Avenue
+Baptist Sunday School, she met and learned to love a classmate, named
+John Taylor. An engagement followed the intimacy of the Sunday School
+class, and the young people looked forward with buoyant spirits to the
+bright life so soon to dawn upon them.
+
+"But fate decreed differently. While getting off a Fulton Street car one
+day in 1864, on her return from school, the young lady slipped and fell
+backward. Her skirt caught on the step unseen by the conductor, who
+started the car on its way again. The poor girl was dragged some ten or
+fifteen yards before her cries were heard and the brake applied. When
+picked up she was insensible and was carried, suffering intense agony
+from an injured spine, to her home near by. Forty-eight hours afterward
+she was seized with a violent spasm which lasted for over two days. Then
+came a trance, when the sufferer grew cold and rigid, with no evidence
+of life beyond a warm spot under the left breast, where feeble
+pulsations of her heart were detected by Dr. Speir. Only this gentleman
+believed she was alive, and it was due to his constant assertion of the
+girl's ultimate recovery that Miss Fancher was not buried. Despite the
+best medical help and the application of restoratives, no change was
+brought about in the patient's condition until the tenth week, when the
+strange suspension of life ceased and breath was once more inhaled and
+breathed forth from her lungs.
+
+"To their dismay the doctors then found that Mollie had lost her sight
+and the power of deglutition, the latter affliction rendering it
+impossible for her to swallow food or even articulate by the use of
+tongue or lip. Previous to her trance a moderate quantity of food had
+been given her each day; but since then she has not taken a mouthful of
+life-sustaining food. Spasms and trances alternated with alarming
+frequency since Miss Fancher was first attacked. First her limbs only
+became rigid and disturbed at the caprice of her strange malady; but as
+time passed her whole frame writhed as if in great pain, requiring to be
+held by main force in order to remain in the bed. She could swallow
+nothing, and lay utterly helpless until moved."
+
+In the _Sun_, of November 24th, 1878, a fuller account of this young
+lady was given, mainly however, in regard to her "clairvoyant," or
+"second-sight" power. Relative to her abstinence from food, I quote the
+following conversation between the reporter and Dr. Speir.
+
+"'Is it true that she has not partaken of food in all these thirteen
+years?'
+
+"'No: I cannot say that she has not; I have not been constantly with her
+for thirteen years; she may have taken food in my absence. Her friends
+have used every device to make her take nourishment. Food has been
+forced upon her, and artificial means have been resorted to that it
+might be carried to her stomach. Nevertheless, the amount in the
+aggregate must have been very small in all these years.'
+
+"'You have considered the case of such extraordinary importance as to
+take many physicians to see it?'
+
+"'I have, and it has excited very much of attention. I have letters
+about it from far and near, and the medical journals have asked for
+information.'"
+
+And this with Dr. Ormiston:
+
+"Dr. Robert Ormiston, who has been one of Miss Fancher's physicians from
+the first, who has seen her constantly in all the different conditions
+of her system, said yesterday that he was convinced that there could be
+no deception. He could find no motive for it, and he did not believe
+that she had attempted it. As to her not partaking of food, he had with
+Dr. Speir made tests that satisfied him that she ate no more than she
+pretended to, and in the aggregate it had not, in all these years,
+amounted to more than the amount eaten at a single meal by a healthy
+man. Dr. Ormiston narrated many curious incidents of the girl's illness,
+and verified the facts of her physical condition as narrated elsewhere."
+
+In order that no injustice may be done to these gentlemen, I quote the
+following from the _Sun_ of November 26th:
+
+"Dr. R. Fleet Speir, one of Miss Fancher's physicians, smiled last
+evening when the _Sun_ reporter asked him what he thought of Dr.
+Hammond's opinions on the case. 'I probably have just as high an opinion
+of Dr. Hammond's opinions as Dr. Hammond has of mine,' he said. 'My
+opinion on the case of Miss Fancher I have always refused to give to any
+one. When I first took the case, years ago, I told the family that I
+would not give them an opinion on it; that I would do what I could with
+it, and that I hoped to bring about a cure. I do not believe in
+clairvoyance or second sight, or anything of the kind. I think I stand
+with the most rigid school on that subject.'
+
+"'But do you think Miss Fancher deceives or endeavors to?'
+
+"The Doctor smiled again. 'Now I do not want you to interview me on
+that. My theory has along been to do nothing to irritate my patient; I
+humored her, and have endeavored in that way to get her confidence, to
+get complete control of her, if possible. In that way I may get her
+mind diverted, and by and by get her out of bed. I have hoped to see her
+cured. I do not see what earthly good a scientific investigation would
+do her. On the contrary, it would harm her. Put a relay of physicians to
+watch her, and she would undoubtedly do her best to beat them. She would
+hold out against them, and likely as not die.'
+
+"Dr. Robert Ormiston said that he thought that the Brooklyn physicians
+knew quite as much about the case as their New York brethren, and that
+their opinions were of as much weight. 'It has become a most interesting
+case from a medical standpoint, because during her long illness, she has
+gone through all the different phases of hysteria that have heretofore
+been observed in many different cases. I think I am correct in this
+statement.'"
+
+From all that can be ascertained therefore, it appears that the young
+lady in question received a severe injury to the spinal cord, in
+consequence of which she became paralyzed in the lower extremities, in
+which members contractions also took place. It is probable also that the
+great sympathetic nerve and brain were involved in the injury.
+
+Confined to her bed, her bodily temperature being low, and passing a
+good of her time in trances or periods of insensibility, the
+requirements of the system as regarded food would necessarily be
+limited. But this is the most that can be said. She _did_ breathe, her
+heart _did_ beat, she required _some_ bodily heat, and the various other
+functions of her organism could not have been maintained without the
+expenditure of matter of some kind. During abstinence from food the body
+itself is consumed for these purposes, and there being no renovation,
+no supplies from without, it loses weight with every instant of time
+until death finally ensues. An emaciated person can withstand this drain
+less effectually than one who is stout and fat.
+
+Again, it is said that the food taken by Miss Fancher was at once
+rejected. That it was _all_ rejected, is in the highest degree
+improbable; a portion remained, and this portion, small as it was, did
+good service when very little was required.
+
+Another point: that Miss Fancher was hysterical admits of no doubt.
+Hysteria is a disease as much in some cases beyond the control of the
+patient as inflammation of the brain or any other disease. A proclivity
+to simulation and deception is just as much a symptom of hysteria as
+pain is of pleurisy. To say, therefore, that she simulated abstinence
+and deceived us to the quantity of food she took, is no imputation on
+her honesty, or questioning her possession of as high a degree of honor
+and trust, as can be claimed by any one. Other women naturally as moral
+as she, have under the influence of hysteria perpetrated the grossest
+deceptions, and they are not unfrequently manifested in the very same
+way that hers apparently are. Her case is by no means an isolated one;
+it is not such as has never been seen before; it does not "knock the
+bottom out of all existing medical theories, and is in a word
+miraculous," as one of the physicians is reported to have said. On the
+contrary, similar ones are often met with as we have seen, and the
+following which I quote from Millingen,[14] is so like it in many
+respects, that the two might have been formed after a common model, as
+in fact they were, just as two or more cases of pneumonia follow a well
+defined type.
+
+"Another wonderful instance of the same kind is that of Janet McLeod,
+published by Dr. McKenzie. She was at the time thirty-three years of
+age, unmarried, and from the age of fifteen had had various attacks of
+epilepsy, which had produced so rigid a lock-jaw that her mouth could
+rarely be forced open by any contrivance; she had lost very nearly the
+power of speech and deglutition, and with this all desire to eat or
+drink. Her lower limbs were contracted towards her body; she was
+entirely confined to her bed, and had periodical discharges of blood
+from the lungs, which were chiefly thrown out by the nostrils. During a
+few intervals of relaxation she was prevailed upon with great difficulty
+to put a few crumbs of bread comminuted in the hand, into her mouth,
+together with a little water sucked from her one hand, and, in one or
+two instances, a little gruel, but even in these attempts almost the
+whole was rejected. On two occasions also, after a total abstinence of
+many months, she made signs of wishing to drink some water, which was
+immediately procured for her. On the first trial the whole seemed to be
+returned from the mouth, but she was greatly refreshed in having it
+rubbed upon the throat. On the second occasion she drank off a pint at
+once, but could not be prevailed upon to drink any more, although her
+father had now fixed a wedge between her teeth. With these exceptions,
+however, she seemed to have passed upwards of four years without either
+liquids or solids of any kind, or even an appearance of swallowing; she
+lay for the most part like a log of wood, with a pulse scarcely
+perceptible for feebleness, but distinct and regular. Her countenance
+was clear and pretty fresh; her features neither disfigured nor sunk;
+her bosom round and prominent, and her limbs not emaciated. Dr. McKenzie
+watched her, with occasional visits, for eight or nine years, at the
+close of which period she seemed to be a little improved."
+
+This account, like that given of Miss Fancher, tells us nothing definite
+in regard to the fasting abilities of the young woman. It simply, with
+the other, may be accepted as indicating that hysterical women are able
+to go for comparatively long periods without food, and that fact we
+already knew. It will be observed that it is stated that she "_seemed_"
+to go four years without food or drink.
+
+In regard to Miss Fancher, the evidence is a little conflicting. First
+we have Dr. Speir reported as saying, in answer to a question as to her
+having lived fourteen years without food:
+
+"'Yes, she became my patient in 1864. Her case is a most remarkable
+one.'
+
+"'But has she eaten nothing during all these years?'
+
+"'I can safely say she has not.'"
+
+This in the _Herald_.
+
+But about a month afterward we find the following conversation, reported
+as taking place between the same physician and another reporter, this
+time of the _Sun_:
+
+"'Is it true that she has not partaken of food in all these thirteen
+years?'
+
+"'No, I cannot say that she has not; I have not been constantly with her
+for thirteen years. She may have taken food in my absence.'"
+
+In which opinion all physiologists will join.
+
+As I have said, hysterical women certainly do exhibit a marked ability
+to go without both food and drink. I have had patients abstain from
+sometimes one, sometimes the other, and sometimes both, for periods
+varying from one day to eleven, and this without much, if any,
+suffering, for as soon as the suffering came they did not hesitate to
+signify their desire to break their voluntary fasts. Real suffering is a
+condition which the hysterical woman avoids with the most assiduous
+care.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[14] Curiosities of Medical Experience. London, 1837, Vol. I., page 269,
+article, _Abstinence_.
+
+
+
+
+V.
+
+THE PHYSIOLOGY AND PATHOLOGY OF INANITION.
+
+
+The opinion that food and drink are necessary to life is so generally
+accepted by mankind, that few venture to dispute the dictum of Virchow
+relative to Louise Lateau, "Fraud or miracle." But although it is
+impossible so far as we know for individuals to continue to exist for
+months and years without the ingestion of nutriment into the system, it
+is undoubtedly true that under certain circumstances life can be
+prolonged for days and weeks without any food of any kind going into the
+organism.
+
+The body is a machine constructed for the purpose of working. The kinds
+of work which the body of a man or woman does are many. Every act of
+perception or sensation, is an act of work; so is every thought, every
+emotion, every volition. The action of the heart or lungs in the
+circulation and respiration, the evolution of the animal heat, the
+various functions of secretion and excretion, digestion, motion,
+speech, etc., are all so many kinds of work. Now as regards work, it is
+well known that for its due performance force is required, and it is
+equally well known that for the development of force, matter that can be
+metamorphosed is necessary. The engine may be perfect, the water may be
+in the boiler, but unless there be force in the form of heat there will
+be no steam; and there will be no heat unless there be fuel in a state
+of combustion.
+
+The human body differs from any other machine in the fact that it uses
+its fuel in great part indirectly; only in fact after it has been
+assimilated and converted into tissues of various kinds. Thus when a
+muscle contracts, it is the muscle itself which is consumed; when a
+thought is conceived it is the brain which provides the force; when an
+emotion is experienced, it is again the brain which is decomposed. The
+body, therefore, lives by the death of its own substance. It is true,
+some kinds of food such as alcohol, tea and coffee, and perhaps some
+others do not require to go farther than the blood to be burned, but
+these are mainly heat-producing, and not tissue-producing substances.
+But whether matter be consumed directly or indirectly, all bodily force
+results from its decomposition, and without this destruction of matter
+the body would be absolutely incapable of a single functional action of
+any kind whatever, and its temperature like that of the so-called
+cold-blooded animals would be that of the surrounding medium, the
+atmosphere.
+
+The quantity of food required by the system varies like the demands of
+other machines in accordance with the amount of work which is to be
+performed. A plowman, other things being equal, consumes more than a
+watchmaker; just as a locomotive burns more fuel than the little engine
+that runs a sewing machine; the strong able-bodied active man, one who
+works his brains and muscles up to their full power, eats more than the
+weak, emaciated and inactive girl, who passes all her time in the
+recumbent position in bed; and the latter will, other things being
+equal, endure for a longer period entire abstinence from food. A little
+food with such a one goes a great way, the demands of the system are at
+their minimum, and hence a mouthful of bread, or a little tea and toast
+taken at long intervals, suffices for the supply of all, or a great
+portion of the waste of the body. With such a person there is not much
+intense thought, there is little or no muscular action, the pulsations
+of the heart do not require to be of much force, the respiration is
+feeble, digestion is at its lowest point, there are no great demands for
+animal heat, and in fact if the temperature of the atmosphere of the
+room in which such a person lies, be kept high, the function of
+calorification may be almost nothing. Still there must be some food
+taken. The body, can to a certain extent, be used up in supplying the
+force required for the several functions without the necessity for an
+immediate restoration of its tissues, but there is a limit to this,
+beyond which it is certain death to go.
+
+Chossat[15] has determined this point very accurately by many
+experiments performed upon doves, pigeons, Guinea pigs, rabbits, etc. He
+found that as a mean result, death ensued when the body lost four-tenths
+of its original weight. For instance, a body weighing one hundred
+pounds, could endure the loss of forty pounds without death necessarily
+following. Five-tenths or one-half appeared to be the extreme loss of
+weight in inanition which the body could endure without death resulting.
+
+In addition to the loss of weight the temperature fell rapidly, the
+action of the heart was lessened, the number and depth of the
+respirations was diminished, and the excretions gradually became smaller
+in amount.
+
+Experiments such as those of Chossat on the lower animals, cannot of
+course be instituted on the human subject, nevertheless nature sometimes
+performs experiments for us which are not without valuable results; and
+accidents of various kinds, have also given us important data.
+
+On the 19th of March, 1755, twenty-two persons living in the Alpine
+village of Bergemoletto, in Piedmont, were buried in their houses by an
+avalanche or whirlwind of snow. The space covered was about 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 deprived of all
+food dies sooner than a healthy person. An insane person suffering from
+acute mania also resists inanition badly, but one the subject of
+melancholia often endures the total deprivation of aliment for a long
+time. Esquirol[20] cites the case of a melancholic who did not succumb
+till after eighteen days of complete abstinence, and Desbarreaux-Bernard
+another in which life was prolonged for sixty-one days, but in this case
+a little broth was taken once. Desportes[21] refers to the case of a
+woman subject to melancholia who continued to exist during two months of
+abstinence, during which she took nothing into the stomach but a little
+water.
+
+It would be easy to go on and quote other instances occurring among
+prisoners, shipwrecked persons, those suffering from diseases which
+prevented food entering the stomach, others lost in deserts, forests,
+etc., in which life has been prolonged for considerable periods. Such
+cases are, however, quite exceptional. An interesting instance occurring
+under one of these heads may, however, be cited as an example.
+
+M. Lepine[22] reports the case of a young girl nineteen years of age who
+swallowed a quantity of sulphuric acid. As a consequence a stricture of
+the [oe]sophagus was produced. Three months after the act, liquids alone
+passed into the stomach; emaciation was extreme and the countenance
+pallid. Four months subsequently, that is, seven months after swallowing
+the acid, the obliteration of the [oe]sophagus was complete, and
+nothing whatever could be swallowed. The patient lived for sixteen days
+after all food or drink was prevented reaching the stomach. During the
+last days of her starvation she complained only of thirst and not of
+hunger. The prostration was extreme and the temperature greatly
+lessened. A tendency to sleep was present, and there was a subdued
+delirium. On the last day of life there was more excitement; the
+conjunctivae were red, the pulse thread-like, and the skin cold. It is
+not stated whether or not attempts were made to feed this patient by
+injections into the rectum of nutritious substances, or by the use of
+baths containing such matters in solution. It may, however, safely be
+taken for granted that efforts of these kinds were made, and if so, the
+unusually long period during which life was sustained is explained.
+
+In all the cases in which life was extraordinarily prolonged there was
+either not a total deprivation of food and drink, or there was a state
+of muscular inaction present particularly favorable to retardation of
+the destructive changes in the body which abstinence produces. It may be
+asserted that in ordinary cases absolute deprivation of food and drink
+cannot be endured by a healthy adult longer than ten days, and death
+generally ensues before the end of the eighth day. It is said that women
+sustain abstinence better than men. Young persons and the aged certainly
+resist with less power than those of the middle period of life. Dante
+was aware of this fact when he made the children of Ugolino die before
+their father, the youngest first, the oldest last.
+
+Even though there be a total deprivation of what may strictly be called
+food, some of the cases already cited show that if water be taken life
+is preserved for a much longer period than would otherwise be the case.
+Thus a negro woman, according to Dr. J. W. Francis,[23] believing
+herself to be bewitched, abstained from food for three weeks, but during
+this period took two small cups of water, to which a very little wine
+had been added.
+
+In a case reported by Dr. McNaughton[24] a longer resistance was
+maintained.
+
+"The subject of this case was a young man, aged twenty-seven, who for
+three years immediately preceding his death almost constantly kept his
+room, apparently engaged in meditation, a Bible his only companion. At
+the latter end of May, 1829, his appetite began to fail; he ate very
+little, and on the 2d of July he declined eating altogether. For the
+first six weeks of his fast he went regularly to the well, washed
+himself, and took a bowl full of water with him into the house. With
+this he occasionally washed his mouth and drank a little; the quantity
+taken during the twenty-four hours did not exceed a pint. On one
+occasion he went three days without taking water, but on the fourth
+morning he was observed to go to the well and drink copiously and
+greedily. For the first six weeks he walked out every day, and sometimes
+spent the greater part of the day in the woods. He retained his strength
+until a short time before his death. During the first three weeks he
+emaciated rapidly; afterwards he did not seem to waste so sensibly.
+Prof. Willoughby visited him a few days before he died. He found the
+skin very cold, the respiration feeble and slow, but otherwise natural;
+but the effluvia from the breath, and perhaps the skin, were extremely
+offensive. During the greater part of the latter week of his life the
+parents say there was a considerable discharge of foul reddish matter
+from the lungs. To this perhaps the offensive smell referred to may be
+chiefly attributed. The pulse was regular, but slow and feeble, and the
+arteries extremely contracted. The radial artery, for example, could be
+distinctly felt like a small, hard thread, communicating almost a wiry
+feel.
+
+"The alvine evacuations were rare; it is believed that he passed several
+weeks without any, but the secretion of urine seemed more regular. He
+died after fasting fifty-three days. On dissection the stomach was found
+loose and flabby. The gall bladder was distended with a dark,
+muddy-looking bile. The mesentery, stomach and intestines were
+excessively thin and transparent. There was no fat in the omentum."
+
+In cases of complete abstinence, the phenomena--to several of which
+attention has already been called--are very striking. The respiration
+becomes slow until just before death, when, as Chossat observes, there
+is often a quickening of the respiratory movements. The exhaled breath
+has a peculiarly sickening and fetid odor. The pulse loses in force and
+frequency.
+
+The blood becomes reduced in quantity to such an extent sometimes that,
+as observed by Collard and Martigny,[25] incisions may be made in
+various parts of the bodies of animals suffering from inanition without
+there being any haemorrhage.
+
+The animal temperature falls, according to Chossat, 8 deg. per day until the
+day of death, when it reaches 14 deg.; and at the moment life departs, the
+loss suddenly becomes 30 deg..
+
+All the secretions are diminished in quantity. This is especially shown
+as regards the saliva and urine. Even open sores cease to secrete pus.
+
+At first there is pain, the seat of which is referred to the stomach,
+and which pain in the beginning, being simply a feeling of emptiness,
+rapidly assumes a gnawing or tearing character. But before long this
+fades away and it does not appear that in the middle and final stages of
+inanition there is any suffering which can be called a pain, or which
+can be fixed in any definite part of the body.
+
+The mental faculties are profoundly affected. A high state of delirium
+supervenes, and there are often hallucinations. These sometimes relate
+to food, which appears to the sufferer to be spread out before him in
+the most seducing manner. All nobility of character disappears, and
+selfishness and brutality govern. Finally the delirium becomes low and
+muttering, the bodily weakness becomes excessive, walking, or even
+standing, is impossible, the sufferer loses all sensation, and death
+ensues.
+
+But probably no part of the subject is of more interest than that which
+relates to the association of inanition with hysteria. As is well known
+by physicians, the existence of this latter condition enables many to
+bear partial, or even complete deprivation of food longer and with less
+apparent suffering than would be possible with individuals in good
+health.
+
+That Miss Fancher is subject to hysteria is very evident from a
+consideration of the clinical history of her case, and hence it is to
+be expected that she can endure long fasts without much inconvenience.
+It is just possible that she might, by remaining quietly in bed in a
+state of partial or complete trance--a hysterical condition in which the
+waste of the tissues is greatly reduced--exist for a month without
+either food or drink, and therefore the proposition which I made to her
+friends contains no exacting condition. But when it is gravely said that
+"for a period of nearly fourteen years she has lived absolutely without
+food or nourishment of any kind," we are forced to declare, in the
+interest of science, that the statement is necessarily absolutely devoid
+of truth. Subsequent statements, as we have seen, modify this fourteen
+years' claim very materially, and really leave it in doubt whether there
+was any abstinence at all.
+
+But I think it may safely be believed that Miss Fancher has indulged in
+frequent long fasts. Hysteria is very frequently marked, not only by the
+ability to endure lengthened periods of abstinence, but by the abolition
+of all desire for food, to such an extent that the sight or even idea of
+aliment of any kind excites loathing and disgust. M. Lasegue,[26] in a
+very interesting memoir, has discussed this part of the subject with
+great precision, and has shown that though such patients take very
+little food they do take some, and that eventually they experience all
+the symptoms of inanition. He has never seen death result from the
+abstinence, for as soon as the condition becomes decidedly unpleasant
+the patient resumes gradually her normal alimentation.
+
+In a case recently under my care, a young lady twenty-three years of
+age became hysterical in consequence of domestic troubles, and losing
+all desire for food, took nothing daily but a single cup of chocolate.
+She persevered in this restricted diet for twenty-nine days, although
+during the last eight or ten she gave decided evidences of starvation.
+She became emaciated, her temperature fell, especially in the
+extremities, her breath was offensive, her menstruation ceased, and
+there was such a marked sense of discomfort that she began to crave
+food, not, as she said, because her appetite had returned, but because
+she was afraid she would die. Still she resisted till, on the thirtieth
+day, she begged for a little beef tea, and from that moment her appetite
+returned to her, and by the end of another week, she was eating her
+ordinary quantity and variety of food.
+
+Now, in this case, though the amount of nutriment taken daily was small,
+it was of such a character as to be well able to sustain life. The half
+pint of chocolate contained milk and sugar, besides the highly
+nutritious chocolate, with its carbonaceous and nitrogenous matters, and
+yet a month was the extreme limit of endurance.
+
+That a state of inanition exists in Miss Fancher is not to be doubted.
+The extreme emaciation, the reduced bodily temperature, the contracted
+stomach and intestines, the great bodily weakness, all show that she is
+not sufficiently nourished. In her case there is apparently not only an
+absence of appetite but a positive disgust for food; and another symptom
+often present in inanition--vomiting when nutriment is taken into the
+stomach--appears also to be a prominent feature. It is probable that
+there is likewise a notable diminution in the amount of urine excreted,
+as this is a common accompaniment of hysterical manifestations such as
+hers. In some instances the function appears to be almost entirely
+arrested, as was the fact in a case described by M. Charcot,[27] and in
+two which have come under my own observation.
+
+There is nothing remarkable in the admitted fact that Miss Fancher eats
+very little. We have seen how existence can be kept up on greatly
+reduced quantities of food, and under circumstances such as those
+governing her case, for periods which would be impossible in healthy
+persons. No one yet under any conditions, whether of hysteria or trance
+or assumed miraculous interference, has, to the satisfaction of
+competent and disinterested investigators, lived even two months without
+the ingestion of any food whatever. As to going nearly fourteen years in
+a state of abstinence--a statement in her behalf which many persons
+believe to be true--I can only say that all the teachings of science and
+of experience are against the claim. No one who had the most superficial
+idea of what knowledge is and how facts can be proven, would for a
+moment accept such a preposterous story, no matter by whom asserted.
+
+The whole subject is one which is to be examined into and determined
+like any other matter, and yet, when a proposition is made to
+investigate by skilled observers the remarkable claim put forward, it is
+met with abuse and misrepresentation, as if these people thought that
+all they had to do was to make an assertion of a phenomenon which,
+according to what we know of nature, is absurd and impossible, to have
+it at once accepted by those who know, by painful experience, how
+doubtful all things are till they are proven, and how difficult it is
+to get satisfactory evidence of the most simple event in physiology or
+pathology. No one doubts the abstract possibility of a human being
+living without food, for, bearing in mind the discoveries that are
+constantly being made, nothing can be regarded as absolutely impossible
+outside the domain of mathematics. Two and two cannot make six, neither
+can two distinct bodies occupy the same space at the same time, nor the
+square of the hypothenuse be otherwise than equal to the sum of the
+squares of the other two sides of a right-angled triangle.
+
+Our knowledge of natural science is, however, founded on experience.
+Looking at a bear, for instance, for the first time, and with no
+knowledge of its habits and capacities we would not be apt to believe
+that the animal could go into retirement at the beginning of winter and
+remain till spring in a condition of semi-existence and without food.
+But experience teaches us that the bear when it begins to hibernate is
+fat; that during hibernation it is in a perfectly quiescent state; that
+when it emerges into active life again it is emaciated, and that during
+the whole period of retirement it has taken nothing into its stomach. We
+then know by observing that all bears go through the same process, that
+it is a law of their organism to do so, and that their reduced
+functional actions are maintained by the consumption of the fat with
+which in the beginning their bodies were loaded. Even here, then, there
+is no exception to the law that there is no force without the
+decomposition of matter. Now, it is just possible that by some hitherto
+unknown or unrecognized condition of the system a man or woman may
+obtain the force necessary to carry on life for fourteen years without
+getting it through food taken into the stomach. But a possibility and a
+fact are two very different things, and the admitted possibility has not
+yet been shown to be a fact. It is easier--to use the argument of
+Hume--for the mind to accept the view that there is deception or error
+somewhere, than to believe that a woman, contrary to all human
+experience, should live fourteen years without food. Turtles, we know,
+will live for months while entirely deprived of nutriment. Many others
+of the cold-blooded animals will do the same thing. It is their nature
+to do so, and we have experience of the fact, but it is not the nature
+of women, so far as we know, and therefore we refuse to accept as true
+the stories which are told of their powers in this direction. And our
+knowledge is based not only on our daily experience of the wants of
+their systems and the examples of starvation which have come to our
+knowledge, but also upon the fact that in the many cases of alleged long
+abstinence from food that have been investigated, error or deception has
+been discovered. Therefore, when it is said that Miss Fancher lives
+without food, and has so done for fourteen years, we simply say, "give
+us the proofs." Of course the proofs are not given.
+
+How far Miss Fancher is responsible for the assertions that have been
+made in regard to her long-continued abstinence I do not know. A
+tendency to deception is a notable phenomenon of hysteria, and if she
+has led those about her to accept the view that she has existed without
+food for years, the circumstance would be in no way remarkable. Other
+hysterical women have deceived in the same or in still more astonishing
+ways. Or it may be that the amount of food taken being very small,
+carelessness or want of exactness has led to the expression that she
+lived upon "absolutely nothing," just as we hear the words used every
+day by those who have little or no appetite, but who nevertheless do eat
+something. Again, a love for the marvellous is so deeply rooted in the
+average human mind that it willingly, and to a certain extent
+unconsciously, adds to any statement of a remarkable circumstance, till
+the latter grows, whilst being repeated, to fabulous dimensions.
+
+But however this may be, whatever the explanation, it is quite certain
+that if Miss Fancher has lived fourteen years without food, or even
+fourteen months, or weeks, she is a unique psychological or pathological
+individual, whose case is worthy of all the consideration which can be
+given to it, not by superstitious or credulous or ignorant persons, but
+by those who, trained in the proper methods of scientific research,
+would know how to get the whole truth of her case, and nothing but the
+truth. It is to be regretted, therefore, that the proposition contained
+in the annexed letter (Appendix) was not accepted, and that we are
+forced to place Miss Fancher's case among the others which have proved
+to be fallacious, till such time as it may suit her and her friends to
+allow of such an examination.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[15] Recherches experimentales sur l'inanition. Paris, 1843, p. 20.
+
+[16] Universal Magazine, Vol. XXXVI, p. 250.
+
+[17] Abridged Philosophical Transaction, Vol. III, p. 111.
+
+[18] Traite de medecine legale et d'hygiene publique. Paris, 1813. t.
+II, p. 285.
+
+[19] Medical Gazette, Vol. XVII, p. 389.
+
+[20] Des maladies mentales. Paris, 1838, p. 203.
+
+[21] Du refus de manger chez les alienes. These de Paris 1864, p.
+
+[22] Nouveau dictionnaire de medecine et de chirurgie pratiques. Paris,
+1874. t. XVIII., Art. Inanition, p. 503.
+
+[23] New York Medical and Surgical Journal, Vol. II, p. 31.
+
+[24] Quoted from Trans. of the Albany Institute by Dr. Lee in Copland's
+Dictionary of Medicine. Vol. I, p. 31.
+
+[25] Recherches experimentales sur les effets de l'abstinence. _Journal
+de Physiologie_ de Magendie, t. VIII, p. 150.
+
+[26] De l'anorexie hysterique. _Archives generales de medecine_, April
+1875.
+
+[27] Lecons sur les maladies du systeme nerveux, t. I., 2d edition.
+Paris, 1876, p. 178.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX.
+
+
+The following letter embraces the proposition made to Miss Fancher, to
+which allusion is made in the text:
+
+    TO THE EDITOR OF THE HERALD:--
+
+    I have read the letter of Professor Henry M. Parkhurst, published in
+    a recent issue of the HERALD, relative to the "mind reading" or
+    clairvoyance of Miss Mollie Fancher, of Brooklyn, and it does not
+    satisfy me that the young lady in question possesses any such power.
+    It would have been very easy for her to have opened the envelope
+    without disturbing the seal and to have read the contents. Now,
+    there has been a great deal of talk about Miss Fancher's case. I
+    have received just fifty-seven letters asking me to investigate it,
+    and the press has reiterated the invitation over and over again. I
+    have stated very explicitly that I regard the whole matter as a
+    humbug of the most decided kind, but I have never asserted the
+    impossibility of the young lady's alleged performances. On the
+    contrary, I hold nothing to be absolutely impossible outside the
+    domain of mathematics. But possibilities and realities are very
+    different things, and I certainly will not accept as true any such
+    phenomena as those asserted to have been associated with Miss
+    Fancher unless they are proven.
+
+    I have already declared my readiness to investigate Miss Fancher,
+    and, a few days since, in the _Sun_, proposed a test which will be
+    perfectly satisfactory to me and many others who, at present, are in
+    accordance with me in my estimation of this young lady. Permit me
+    now to state it definitely, specifically, and once for all. I will
+    place a certified check for a sum of money exceeding $1,000 inside
+    of a single paper envelope. I will lay the package on a table in the
+    room in which she is. If she chooses she may take it in her hands
+    and place it in contact with any part of her body. I will allow her
+    half an hour to describe the check. If she reads it--number, date,
+    on whom drawn, amount, signature, etc.--accurately, she may have the
+    check as her own property, or I will give the amount expressed in
+    the check, in her name to any charitable institution she may
+    designate, or otherwise dispose of it in accordance with her
+    wishes.
+
+    The only conditions I exact are these:--
+
+    _First_--That the experiment be conducted in my presence and in that
+    of two other physicians, members of the New York Neurological
+    Society, whom I will bring with me as witness simply, and who will
+    not interfere in any way with the test.
+
+    _Second_--That the envelope shall at no time pass out of our sight.
+
+    If Miss Fancher succeeds in this test I will admit that heretofore
+    in my denunciations of such performances as hers I have been in
+    error, and that there is a force in nature which ought to be
+    investigated. I will pay the money not only without chagrin, but
+    with great satisfaction, and will consider that I have received full
+    value.
+
+    If she fails, as I am quite sure she will, I shall not hesitate to
+    continue to denounce her as an imposition in this as well as in her
+    assumed abstinence from food.
+
+    A word further in regard to this last matter. I know something about
+    "fasting girls" and their frauds, not excepting the sad case of poor
+    little Sarah Jacob. But I will make this additional proposition:--If
+    Miss Fancher will allow herself to be watched, day and night, for
+    one month, by relays of members of the New York Neurological
+    Society, I will give her $1,000 if at the end of that month she has
+    not in the meantime taken food voluntarily or as a forced measure to
+    save her from dying of starvation, the danger of this last
+    contingency to be judged of by her family physician, Dr. Speir.
+    These offers to remain open for acceptance till twelve o'clock M.,
+    December 31st. If not taken up by that time, let us hear no more in
+    support of Miss Fancher's mind reading or clairvoyance, or living
+    for a dozen or more years without food.
+
+                                              WILLIAM A. HAMMOND, M.D.
+
+    _43 West Fifty-Fourth Street, New York, Dec. 12th, 1878._
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note:
+
+    Hyphenation and punctuation have been standardised. Variant
+    spellings have been retained. Minor typographical errors have been
+    corrected without note, whilst significant amendments have been
+    listed below:
+
+      p. 3, 'Nicholas' amended to _Nicolas_
+      p. 5, 'Aquaintoin' amended to _Aquitaine_
+      p. 5, 'predominent' amended to _predominant_
+      p. 6, 'Geraldus Bucoldianus' amended to _Gerardus Bucoldianus_
+      p. 7, 'f[oe]ces' amended to _faeces_
+      p. 7, 'developes' amended to _develops_
+      p. 7, fn. 4, '{Pasateseseon}' amended to _{Paratereseon}_
+      p. 7, fn. 4, added _rararum_: 'medicarum, _rararum_, novarum'
+      p. 7, fn. 4, 'monstrasarum' amended to _monstrosarum_
+      p. 8, '1567' amended to _1597_
+      p. 9, fn. 7, 'chirurgicae' amended to _chirurgicarum_
+      p. 15, 'Anne Jones' amended to _Ann Jones_
+      p. 16, 'f[oe]cal' amended to _faecal_
+      p. 26, 'f[oe]ces' amended to _faeces_
+      p. 31, 'Cardinal Carrafa' amended to _Cardinal Carafa_
+      p. 40, 'Farenheit' amended to _Fahrenheit_
+      p. 41, fn. 13, 'Rapport Medicale' amended to _Rapport Medical_
+      p. 41, fn. 13, added _de_: 'medecine _de_ Belgique'
+      p. 44, 'ecstacy' amended to _ecstasy_
+      p. 44, added _of_: 'direction _of_ M. le Cure'
+      p. 46, 'fecal' amended to _faecal_
+      p. 47, 'stigmatisations' amended to _stigmatizations_
+      p. 48, 'fortell' amended to _foretell_
+      p. 48, 'marvelous' amended to _marvellous_
+      p. 58, 'is' amended to _it_: 'that _it_ is stated'
+      p. 58, 'Dr. Spier' amended to _Dr. Speir_
+      p. 60, 'assimulated' amended to _assimilated_
+      p. 60, 'alchohol' amended to _alcohol_
+      p. 62, 'Bergemolletta' amended to _Bergemoletto_
+      p. 62, 'breath' amended to _breadth_
+      p. 62, 'Belguim' amended to _Belgium_
+      p. 63, fn. 18, 'medicine' amended to _medecine_
+      p. 64, 'palid' amended to _pallid_
+      p. 64, fn. 22, 'Nouvreau' amended to _Nouveau_
+      p. 64, fn. 22, 'medicine' amended to _medecine_
+      p. 67, 'messentery' amended to _mesentery_
+      p. 67, 'their' amended to _there_
+      p. 67, 'hemorrhage' amended to _haemorrhage_
+      p. 68, 'Chosset' amended to _Chossat_
+      p. 69, fn. 26, 'medicine' amended to _medecine_
+      p. 71, 'her's' amended to _hers_
+      p. 71, 'injestion' amended to _ingestion_
+      p. 76, 'Sarah Jacobs' amended to _Sarah Jacob_
+      p. 76, 'Dr. Spier' amended to _Dr. Speir_
+
+    The page reference in fn. 21 (p. 64) was omitted in the original text.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Fasting Girls, by William Alexander Hammond
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #25601 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/25601)
author	Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org>	2025-10-15 02:18:01 -0700
committer	Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org>	2025-10-15 02:18:01 -0700
commit	090277fd9a14501a30c3de6500a961769b873833 (patch)
tree	57e6334c2aa8921e704461c7f4d547609177d265