Knoxville journal. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1874-1986, 1876-05-25
Fifty-eIght Days Without Food.

Fifty-eIght Days Without Food.
On the road leading from the village of
Mexico, in Oswego County, to Colosse,
and two and half miles from Mexico
village, lives a widow by the name of
Stansberry. She is about fifty years old,
and for the past ten years has been bed
ridden and helpless, as the result of a ner-
vous disease Her family consisted of
| two daughters, one of whom, Martha,
aged nineteen, lived with and took care of
| her In October last Martha was taken
sick with neuralgia affection of the face
and head, from which she suffered intense
pain for two weeks, and at the end of
which time she went to the village of
Mexico and had her teeth extracted.
| They were much decayed. and she thought
that the difficulty arose from them. Soon
after she returned home she was taken
| with excruciating pains in the LETT side,
| Just below the ribs, which we're SO severe
| as to throw her into commissions, Of
| which she had as many as 100 in twenty
| four hours on some days. From her side
the pain went to her chest, and thence to
her throat, and then she experienced great
difficulty in swallowing. From the Goth
to the 9th of February she took about one
tablespoonful of cream each day, and no
other nourishment With each admins
tration of this diet the patient went into
violent commissions. On Sunday, Feb
81, the last 6uccessfnl attempt was made
to introduce food into the stomach. On
| that day the copvulsiOns were so violent
| that death seemed TO be imminent The
| sight or smell of food produced spasms,
and it became necessary to avoid present
| ing food TO her for while. At this stage
she seemed to lose the senses of sight
and hearing, and also the power of
speech, and would lie three or four days
| in a state of partial coma, after which
she would revive sufficiently TO write her
desires on slate. For the three weeks
succeeding the 9th of February she
| wrote constantly on her slate about her
suffering fcs food, and when food was Of
| iered to her the commissions returned.
| During these three weeks she slept but
very little, and was in a state of high
| nervous excitement, sometimes ordering
| her attendants from the room, as she
| could not bear their presence. At the end
| of the three weeks she became very quiet,
and slept regularly and well: For three
| or four DAYS at a time she would be APP
| then would revive for a short time and
appear to exercise all those functions. At
| the end of this period Uhe three weeks)
her physicians, Drs. HeatOn and Hunt
| ington, of Mexico, commenced to treat
her with hypodermic injections, intro
| ducing notifications into the arms, and
bathing the chest, stomach and bowels
| with milk and beef broth. After this,
| bread, cake, etc, were placed in her
| hands; she would sometimes attempt to
put the food to her mouth, but all at
| tempts TO eat were Useless. At that time
| she was able TO talk, and said that she
| would never be able to eat again When
asked why she said she didn't know why,
only she never could. From the com
mencement of her sickness till her death,
| which occurred on Tuesday last, April Is,
| the attendants were obliged to fan her
| continually; when the tanning stopped she
seemed TO cease to breathe. At the time
Of her death, which occurred at ten a. m,
she was sensible, but had been unable to
| speak since the previous evening. She
| had then lain fifty eight days without tax.
| ing a particle OF nourshment into her
| stomach, not even a drop of water, her
| only means OF sustenance being the alb
sorptfen of the milk and beef tea, the
| bathing in which was continued to the
| day when she died. On Wednesday Drs
| Heaton and Huntington made careful
post. norton examination of the body No
disease of any kind was revealed The
throat, chest, lungs, stomach, liver and
kidneys were all found in perfectly healthy
condition. The left side, where the pain
started, showed no indication of disease
Miss Stansberry had previously been a
perfectly healthy girl, weighing about 100
pounds when she was taken sick, aud
after death weighed not less than 130 The
physicians think that death resulted from
extreme nervous prostration rather than
starvation. The facts rs here related were
ascertained to-day from the physicians
who attended the case and made the post
morten by Palladium reporter, who Wis
tied Mexico tor that purpose. OF the ac-
curacy of this statement, remarkable AS il
is, there can be no question. Drs. Hea-
ton and Huntington, and other reliable
physicians say the medical record show
no case of the kind in any part of the