The western Democrat. [volume] (Charlotte, N.C.) 1852-1870, 1858-05-11
THE WOMAN WHO LIVES WITHOUT
EATING.

We have published several letters respecting
this extraordinary case of suffering; they are i'm
portant to scientific men, and painfully interesting
to ALL The following is written by Rev ). i.
Williams to the Christian Advocate:
'Mrs Hayes is not yet dead. | have seen her
several times And after reading all that has ap-
peared in the Advocate in regard to her. venture
to communicate few thoughts upon her case,
Before she passed into this peculiar and affective
condition, her health was for some length of time
extremely poor. She ate but little, and that little
occassioned considerable amount Of suffering
Sometimes it threw her into spasnls. For nearly
4 wear before she ceased to take refreshments al
together, she lived wholly, nearly so, upon the
iuicc of dried raspberries, until that became
source of suffering. Then, for time she took &C.
cassonally small quantity of cold water; and
it is now nearly a year since she sWaHoTeo any
iouid to the knowledge of any one. Indeed L
have no doubt that teaspoonful of liquid put into
her mouth would be The occasion CT her death,
unless the spasmodic action Of her throat should
exrcl it. ANY person to see her ten minutes must
he satisfied there is no deception in her case. Her
head or shoulders, one or the other are i'll perpet-
ual motion She is frequently thrown forward
until she is nearly doubled together, and then her
head thrown back, and her neck literally doubled
and the body forced back, and the Whole lace; chm
and ALL entirely buried in the pillow. This is
/
take in writing it.
The last time in the series the face viii remain
nearly buried in the pillow, and she does not
breathe for ten or fifteen minutes. Once she re-
mained sixty-two minutes without BREATHING
When this is over and the spasm passes oil she
struggles for breath, and her head is rolled from
side to side almost with the velocity OF Lightning
I for moment or two; the face becomes red witt
the rush Of blood to the head and the skin quite
moist with perspiration. Then the spasm subsldc
into gentle motion Of the jaw and shoulder, keep
inc time, as one would think, with the action 0
the heart Her skin about the face, neck, chcs
and hands is delicate and healthy the skin Of al
infant. The pusations Of her blood about tn
chest, neck, head and arms, though eXceedng
delicate are quite regular. Her hair does no
GROW; nor is it worn off the head, as one wou
naturally suppose, except little just upon tn
crown. The action Of the liver is entirely sus
pended, of course. The action and state OF tn
lungs arc perfectly healthy. They have bee
thoroughly examined by skillful physicians, wit
the aid of stcthoscope, and supposed to b
perfect Her nousishment is wholly from the al
mospherc The last nutriment indeed the las
swallow of water she known to take, was
the lat of June 1857. The last time she wa
known to be conscious was last December. Nhe
she comes out of these long spasms she seems [
crv for moment like an infant III distress. \
such times her husband thinks she may be cc1
scious 1t is most distressing to hear 1t. She
not above the ordinary laws of disease. She HI
} recently had thorough case OF the mumps, pr
cisely as others have them. Her nails upon ht
fingers, like her hair, do not grow at all.