The Sun.
London, England, 1869-12-18 00:00:00

THE WELSH EA,STING

The Welsh fasting girl is dead ; and the nurses and the
doctors are brought face to face with the startling position
which we suggested a day or two back. The nurses have seen
her gradually sinking ; they suggested to the parents that
food should be brought ; both father and mother refused
to offer her any, even when she became delirious. Shortly
after three on Friday afternoon, while unconscious and
without making any statement, the poor child died.
The Times repeats tho " strange and obscure story."
It attracted attention for some time, until at length the
doctors were brought to consider the case. Dr. Fowler, a
district medical officer of the metropolis, saw and ex-
amined the girl. He was told that about two year!:
and a quarter ago, while 11 years old, the child was
seized with vomiting of blood. She took to her bed,
and never afterwards left it, except when she was
lifted out. She immediately displayed an inability
to swallow, and the sight of food at once brought on
its. She also suffered from fits whenever she was moved.
Her case soon became famous among her credulous Welsh
neighbours, and at length attainod public notoriety. The
consequence was that the girl became a regular exhibition.
Her parents were small farmers, and visitors came to their
farm in hundreds, not, of course, without leaving money
and other presents. The girl was seen "lying in her bed,
decorated as a bride, having round her head a wreath of
:lowers," with ribands and other ornaments. Welshbooks
were open before her. In this condition she is said to have
remained during the last two years without touching
either food or drink, except that her lips were moistened
with water once a fortnight. It is unquestionable that
there is no one who can impeaoh this statement from
observation. She was watched some time ago by less
skilful observers than on the present occasion. They
(lid not notice her taking any nourishment, but
they omitted to examine her bed. Her parents
may be thought to have given painful evidence of
their own belief in their child's story by refusing, even at
the last moments of the present trial, to give her any food.
If so, the manner in which she could have obtained food
becomes still more difficult to understand. At length it
occurred to some one to inquire at one of our great
London hospitals whether it would be possible to submit
the case to a thorough scientific examination. The autho-
rities of Guy's Hospital offered the services of four expe-
rienced nurses. A local committee was called, including seve-
ral doctors and clergymen ; written directions for watching
were furnished to them, and the parents gave their con-
sent. As a preliminary, the girl's bed and " every rag in
the room were thoroughly examined," in order to insure
that no food Was concealed, and none was discovered.
With these strict precautions, the watching commenced
last Thursday week, at four o'clock in the afternoon. At
three o'clock on Friday afternoon the child died, as we have
stated. There never, of course, has been any room for
reasonable doubt, says the Times, respecting the true expla
nation of this extraordinary illusion; but this experiment
will convince all, except the obstinately credulous. No
sooner are precautions adopted to insure that the "Fasting
Girl" really does fast, than the natural effects of absti-
nence are produced. The poor girl dies in delirium at
the end of a week. By some means or other she must
have contrived hitherto to obtain nourishment enough to
sustain life. Very little would probably be necessary to
enable her to exist in such a perfectly inactive state as
she has maintained. Whether the deception was wilful
or not, the poor child has paid dearly for it. Her
end is as piteous as it is extraordinary. At the
age of 13 she has deliberately accepted a lingering
death. Her resolution is equally astonishing by what-
ever motive it was prompted. It is the death of a mar-
tyr without a martyr's objects. Whether she deliberately
preferred a slow death by hunger to detection and disgrace,
or whether her delusion had obtained such a hold upon
her that she believed she could outwatch the watchers,
her endurance and power of will must have been
put to a terrible strain. It can now hardly be
hoped that the real secret of her apparent absti-
nence will ever be discovered. She herself has
kept it to the last, and if her parents were cogni-
zant of it they are not likely now to reveal it. It
may be wished, indeed, that the present experiment had
been made before the deception or illusion had been main-
tained so long. The longer it lasted, the more strongly
must it have been confirmed, and after two years it may
very probably have been too late to shake or dissipate it.
The case is now, and perhaps will always remain, a
mystery; but nothing can alter the fact we have now
before us, or the evidence it gives. How far the girl
fasted previously we have no means of knowing. But
when to our knowledge she was completely deprived of
food, she died.
The Daily News remarks that the result in this case was
inevitable. There was no alternative before the girl but
to cat or to die. She was herself, probably, in that condi-
ti on of entire weakness and prostration in which all desire
for food had left her, and it was clearly the duty of those
who had her in charge to force food upon her. The
refusal cf the parents to do this may have been the result
either of a blind belief in her powers of fasting, or of
a dogged determination to play the game to the end. But
however this may have been, it must now be rendered
evident even to the most sensational lovers of the mar-
vellous that, however long the girl might have kept
what was called her fast when only her parents were
watching her, she could not keep it under the new condi-
tions of a strict and disinterested watch. At the touch
of really serious investigation the case breaks down—
as all sensible persons knew it must. Now, however,
arises the rather serious question we put two days ago, as
to where the responsibility of starving the girl to death
rests ? Is it with the girl herself, with her parents, or with
the watchers ?We will not venture an answer to this ques-
tion, and will not even venture to say that it must or
should be answered. One thing, however, is and
must remain clear for all future time. No
Welsh fasting girls must any more ,be treated with
this fatal seriousness. It is not science, but superstition,
even to inquire into the possibility of any human being
living a conscious life without food. The very profession
to do so is either disease, fanaticism, or imposture, and
should be treated as such. But the tendency to
believe in marvels is perennial, and is perennially
supplied with the wonders it seeks. This little girl
might probably have been saved had her case
been treated medically from the point of view of
unbelief in her fasting powers, instead of from the point
of view of an assumption that they might be real. Had
food been given her instead of watchfully kept from her,
she would probably have been now alive. She can, how-
ever, well be spared if the fatal result in her case explodes
such pretensions henceforth, and we hear no more of fast-
ing girls even among the hills of Wales.

We have reason to believe (says the Pall Mall
Gazette) that the proposal to issue a halfpenny postage stamp,
which is at present the subject of correspondence between
the Post-office and the Treasury, is meeting with much op-
position in both departments.

The Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol has for-
warded a formal document to the Bishop of London,
notifying that he is not consentient to tho consecration
of Dr. Temple, under the circumstances of his perse-
verance in declining to disavow the teaching of Essays and
Rev;ews.

A clergyman of Nottingham—the Rev. Dr. Bedfora,
curate of Colwick— has taken a strange course to induce the
parishioners to attend church. They do not like the " High"
service. He, to admonish them, has placarded the 90th
Canon of the English Church. "The Churchwardens of
every parish shall diligently see that all the parishioners
duly resort to their church upon all Sundays and Holy
Days, and there continuo the whole time of Divine service.
And all such as shall be found slack or negligent in re-
sorting to the Church (having no great or urgent cause of
absence) they shall earnestly call upon them, and after due
monition (if they amend not) they shall present them to the
Ordinary cf the place." The rev. gentleman called upon
his churchwardens to carry out their duty iu visiting the
people.

SUICIDE OF A SCHOOLBOY.—An inquest was hem
on Thursday at Oxford on the body of John Arthur
Hone, a youth between 15 and 16 years of age, the son of a
clergyman residing at Dradleigh, near Redditch, who was
found drowned in the Chet well on the previous day. The
Rev. F. W. Fryer deposed that the deceased was at his
school at Oxford, together with his twin brother. He
never complained, but sometimes showed signs of diffi
culty in preparing his work, and his conduct was exceed
ingly good. Ile suffered from indigestion. The father of
the deceased was examined, and stated that he had not the
slighteat complaint to make of his son's treatment at
school. James Arthur Hone, brother of the deceased, said
that the latter complained to him at school of being
poorly, and he had consulted a medical man. Witness
had never heard him talk of committing suicide. He
was very- quiet and dejected when they were packing up
to go home for the holidays, and left him while so en-
gaged, saying ho was going downstairs. Witness never
saw him again alive. Had never known deceased to be
threatened with any punishment. The following note,
in deceased's handwriting, was found in one of his
poc esk t • Darling Brother,—l feel that my life will only
be a burden to tne and my parents if I live any longer. It
is all right. I hope soon to bo in heaven. Don't trouble
about me; I will soon see all your happy faces again with
the angels in heaven. I quickly commit myself to God, in
the hope that I shall soon be with remain, your
dear brother, JostN." A witness stated that he saw
deceased run into the river. The jury returned a verdict
to the effect that the deceased committed suicide while iu
=mad Mac 01 paina.