Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine [248]
gradually returned and he felt excessively cold. His clothes were wet, and his feet so swollen that the power of the lower extremities was totally gone and that of the arms was much impaired. For a long time he was unable to articulate or to summon assistance. Early in September he heard some persons in the wood and, having managed to summon them in a feeble voice, told them his story. They declared him to be an impostor and left him. On the evening of the same day his late master came to his assistance and removed him to Swan Inn. He affirmed that during his exposure in the woods he had nothing to eat; though distressing at first, hunger soon subsided and yielded to thirst, which he appeased by chewing grass having beads of water thereon. He slept during the warmth of the day, but the cold kept him awake at night. During his sleep he dreamt of eating and drinking. On November 17, 1806, several surgeons of Bath made an affidavit, in which they stated that this man was admitted to the Bath City Dispensary on September 15th, almost a month after his reputed stroke, in an extremely emaciated condition, with his legs and thighs shriveled as well as motionless. There were several livid spots on his legs and one toe was gangrenous. After some time they amputated the toe. The power in the lower extremities soon returned.
In relating his travels in the Levant, Hasselquist mentions 1000 Abyssinians who became destitute of provisions while en route to Cairo, and who lived two months on gum arabic alone, arriving at their destination without any unusual sickness or mortality. Dr. Franklin lived on bread and water for a fortnight, at the rate of ten pounds per week, and maintained himself stout and healthy. Sir John Pringle knew a lady of ninety who lived on pure fat meat. Glower of Chelmsford had a patient who lived ten years on a pint of tea daily, only now or then chewing a half dozen raisins or almonds, but not swallowing them. Once in long intervals she took a little bread.
Brassavolus describes a younger daughter of Frederick King of Naples who lived entirely without meat, and could not endure even the taste of it, as often as she put any in her mouth she fell fainting. The monks of Monte Santo (Mount Athos) never touched animal food, but lived on vegetables, olives, end cheese. In 1806 one of them at the age of one hundred and twenty was healthy.
Sometimes in the older writings we find records of incredible abstinence. Jonston speaks of a man in 1460 who, after an unfortunate matrimonial experience, lived alone for fifteen years, taking neither food nor drink. Petrus Aponensis cites the instance of a girl fasting for eight years. According to Jonston, Hermolus lived forty years on air alone. This same author has also collected cases of abstinence lasting eleven, twenty-two, and thirty years and cites Aristotle as an authority in substantiating his instances of fasting girls.
Wadd, the celebrated authority on corpulence, quotes Pennant in mentioning a woman in Rosshire who lived one and three-quarters years without meat or drink. Granger had under observation a woman by the name of Ann Moore, fifty-eight years of age, who fasted for two years. Fabricius Hildanus relates of Apollonia Schreiera that she lived three years without meat or drink. He also tells of Eva Flegen, who began to fast in 1596, and from that time on for sixteen years, lived without meat or drink. According to the Rev. Thos. Steill, Janet Young fasted sixteen years and partially prolonged her abstinence for fifty years. The Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, which contains a mention of the foregoing case, also describes the case of Janet Macleod, who fasted for four years, showing no signs of emaciation. Benjamin Rush speaks of a case mentioned in a letter to St. George Tucker, from J. A. Stuart, of a man who, after receiving no benefit from a year's treatment for hemiplegia, resolved to starve himself to death. He totally abstained from food for sixty days, living on water and chewing apples, but spitting out the pulp; at the expiration of this
In relating his travels in the Levant, Hasselquist mentions 1000 Abyssinians who became destitute of provisions while en route to Cairo, and who lived two months on gum arabic alone, arriving at their destination without any unusual sickness or mortality. Dr. Franklin lived on bread and water for a fortnight, at the rate of ten pounds per week, and maintained himself stout and healthy. Sir John Pringle knew a lady of ninety who lived on pure fat meat. Glower of Chelmsford had a patient who lived ten years on a pint of tea daily, only now or then chewing a half dozen raisins or almonds, but not swallowing them. Once in long intervals she took a little bread.
Brassavolus describes a younger daughter of Frederick King of Naples who lived entirely without meat, and could not endure even the taste of it, as often as she put any in her mouth she fell fainting. The monks of Monte Santo (Mount Athos) never touched animal food, but lived on vegetables, olives, end cheese. In 1806 one of them at the age of one hundred and twenty was healthy.
Sometimes in the older writings we find records of incredible abstinence. Jonston speaks of a man in 1460 who, after an unfortunate matrimonial experience, lived alone for fifteen years, taking neither food nor drink. Petrus Aponensis cites the instance of a girl fasting for eight years. According to Jonston, Hermolus lived forty years on air alone. This same author has also collected cases of abstinence lasting eleven, twenty-two, and thirty years and cites Aristotle as an authority in substantiating his instances of fasting girls.
Wadd, the celebrated authority on corpulence, quotes Pennant in mentioning a woman in Rosshire who lived one and three-quarters years without meat or drink. Granger had under observation a woman by the name of Ann Moore, fifty-eight years of age, who fasted for two years. Fabricius Hildanus relates of Apollonia Schreiera that she lived three years without meat or drink. He also tells of Eva Flegen, who began to fast in 1596, and from that time on for sixteen years, lived without meat or drink. According to the Rev. Thos. Steill, Janet Young fasted sixteen years and partially prolonged her abstinence for fifty years. The Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, which contains a mention of the foregoing case, also describes the case of Janet Macleod, who fasted for four years, showing no signs of emaciation. Benjamin Rush speaks of a case mentioned in a letter to St. George Tucker, from J. A. Stuart, of a man who, after receiving no benefit from a year's treatment for hemiplegia, resolved to starve himself to death. He totally abstained from food for sixty days, living on water and chewing apples, but spitting out the pulp; at the expiration of this