Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine [250]
days, when she died. She was delirious throughout this fast and slept daily seven or eight hours. As a rule, she drank about a wineglassful of water each day and her urine was scanty and almost of the consistency of her feces. There is a remarkable case of a girl of seventeen who, suffering with typhoid fever associated with engorgement of the abdomen and suppression of the functions of assimilation, fasted for four months without visible diminution in weight. Pierce reports the history of a woman of twenty-six who fasted for three months and made an excellent recovery.
Grant describes the "Market Harborough fasting-girl," a maiden of nineteen, who abstained from food from April, 1874, until December, 1877, although continually using morphia. Throughout her fast she had periodic convulsions, and voided no urine or feces for twelve months before her death. There was a middle-aged woman in England in 1860 who for two years lived on opium, gin, and water. Her chief symptoms were almost daily sickness and epileptic fits three times a week. She was absolutely constipated, and at her death her abdomen was so distended as to present the appearance of ascites. After death, the distention of the abdomen was found to be due to a coating of fat, four inches thick, in the parietes. There was no obstruction to the intestinal canal and no fecal or other accumulation within it. Christina Marshall, a girl of fourteen, went fifteen and one-half months without taking solid nourishment. She slept very little, seldom spoke, but occasionally asked the time of day. She took sweets and water, with beef tea at intervals, and occasionally a small piece of orange. She died April 18, 1882, after having been confined to her bed for a long while.
King, a surgeon, U.S.A., gives an account of the deprivation of a squad of cavalry numbering 40. While scouting for Indians on the plains they went for eighty-six hours without water; when relieved their mouths and throats were so dry that even brown sugar would not dissolve on their tongues. Many were delirious, and all had drawn fresh blood from their horses. Despite repeated vomiting, some drank their own urine. They were nearly all suffering from overpowering dyspnea, two were dead, and two were missing. The suffering was increased by the acrid atmosphere of the dry plains; the slightest exercise in this climate provoked a thirst. MacLoughlin, the surgeon in charge of the S.S. City of Chester, speaks of a young stowaway found by the stevedores in an insensible condition after a voyage of eleven days. The man was brought on deck and revived sufficiently to be sent to St. Vincent's Hospital, N.Y., about one and one-half hours after discovery, in an extremely emaciated, cold, and nearly pulseless condition. He gave his name as John Donnelly, aged twenty, of Dumbarton, Scotland. On the whole voyage he had nothing to eat or drink. He had found some salt, of which he ate two handfuls, and he had in his pocket a small flask, empty. Into this flask he voided his urine, and afterward drank it. Until the second day he was intensely hungry, but after that time was consumed by a burning thirst; he shouted four or five hours every day, hoping that he might be heard. After this he became insensible and remembered nothing until he awakened in the hospital where, under careful treatment, he finally recovered.
Fodere mentions some workmen who were buried alive fourteen days in a cold, damp cavern under a ruin, and yet all lived. There is a modern instance of a person being buried thirty-two days beneath snow, without food. The Lancet notes that a pig fell off Dover Cliff and was picked up alive one hundred and sixty days after, having been partially imbedded in debris. It was so surrounded by the chalk of the cliff that little motion was possible, and warmth was secured by the enclosing material. This animal had therefore lived on its own fat during the entire period.
Among the modern exhibitionists may be mentioned Merlatti, the fasting Italian, and Succi, both of whom fasted in Paris; Alexander Jacques, who
Grant describes the "Market Harborough fasting-girl," a maiden of nineteen, who abstained from food from April, 1874, until December, 1877, although continually using morphia. Throughout her fast she had periodic convulsions, and voided no urine or feces for twelve months before her death. There was a middle-aged woman in England in 1860 who for two years lived on opium, gin, and water. Her chief symptoms were almost daily sickness and epileptic fits three times a week. She was absolutely constipated, and at her death her abdomen was so distended as to present the appearance of ascites. After death, the distention of the abdomen was found to be due to a coating of fat, four inches thick, in the parietes. There was no obstruction to the intestinal canal and no fecal or other accumulation within it. Christina Marshall, a girl of fourteen, went fifteen and one-half months without taking solid nourishment. She slept very little, seldom spoke, but occasionally asked the time of day. She took sweets and water, with beef tea at intervals, and occasionally a small piece of orange. She died April 18, 1882, after having been confined to her bed for a long while.
King, a surgeon, U.S.A., gives an account of the deprivation of a squad of cavalry numbering 40. While scouting for Indians on the plains they went for eighty-six hours without water; when relieved their mouths and throats were so dry that even brown sugar would not dissolve on their tongues. Many were delirious, and all had drawn fresh blood from their horses. Despite repeated vomiting, some drank their own urine. They were nearly all suffering from overpowering dyspnea, two were dead, and two were missing. The suffering was increased by the acrid atmosphere of the dry plains; the slightest exercise in this climate provoked a thirst. MacLoughlin, the surgeon in charge of the S.S. City of Chester, speaks of a young stowaway found by the stevedores in an insensible condition after a voyage of eleven days. The man was brought on deck and revived sufficiently to be sent to St. Vincent's Hospital, N.Y., about one and one-half hours after discovery, in an extremely emaciated, cold, and nearly pulseless condition. He gave his name as John Donnelly, aged twenty, of Dumbarton, Scotland. On the whole voyage he had nothing to eat or drink. He had found some salt, of which he ate two handfuls, and he had in his pocket a small flask, empty. Into this flask he voided his urine, and afterward drank it. Until the second day he was intensely hungry, but after that time was consumed by a burning thirst; he shouted four or five hours every day, hoping that he might be heard. After this he became insensible and remembered nothing until he awakened in the hospital where, under careful treatment, he finally recovered.
Fodere mentions some workmen who were buried alive fourteen days in a cold, damp cavern under a ruin, and yet all lived. There is a modern instance of a person being buried thirty-two days beneath snow, without food. The Lancet notes that a pig fell off Dover Cliff and was picked up alive one hundred and sixty days after, having been partially imbedded in debris. It was so surrounded by the chalk of the cliff that little motion was possible, and warmth was secured by the enclosing material. This animal had therefore lived on its own fat during the entire period.
Among the modern exhibitionists may be mentioned Merlatti, the fasting Italian, and Succi, both of whom fasted in Paris; Alexander Jacques, who