The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1880-08-21
THE RECORD OF TANNERS FAST.
At the End Of Forty Days He Drinks Milk Eats
Watermelon and Beef Steak

At noon, June %. 1880, the first entry on the
record book was made: "Dr. Henry $. Tan
ner, aged 49, appeared in Clarendon Hall this
day to begin a 40-days' fast. He declares that
he has eaten no solid food to-day, but took for
breakfast quart of milk, and the same guam
tity for dinner at Has O'Clock His weight,
with clothing, Is 1872 pounds; temperature.
90; average pulse, SO, with a variation of from
u to "a pulsations per minute; respiration, 49,
The doctor undressed and carefully exam
med. His clothing also was carefully examined
to see that no food was therein concealed"
DIR. Tanners first intention was to
take neither food nor water for the space
of forty days, but he was persuaded
finally to take water, and drank copious-
ly during the first two days. When the
second day expired he decided not to
take water for the remainder of his fast,
and went on without food or water until
the expiration OF the tenth day. At this
time his sufferings had become SO terri
BILE to witness that the physicians were
sometimes moved almost to tears. He
was constantly calling for wet sponges to
be placed upon his forehead and wet
spOnges in his hands. But the surface
ABSORPTION was not sufficient for the pur-
pose. The last day-the eighth in all
abstinence from drinklng-he was evil
IDENTIFY or the verge of delirium, evinced
by lnarticulate cries and such tossing
when he tried to sleep as was heartrend-
ing to witness and hear. His loss III
weight during these eight days was 2
pounds per day, making 16 out of SO
pounds lost during the experiment He
was fast passing beyond medical inter
ference and had, according to the testi-
IT. |, -,
when the persuasion of the latter pro
vailed upon him to abate his abstinence
from water. Having consented to this, he
commenced the eleventh day by taking
at intervals copious draughts of water
His weight at that time was 1891 pounds,
and during the next ten days he lost only
4 pounds, or little less than s ounces
per day, against 80 ounces per day of the
preceding eight.
At the end of the twentieth day he
was in better physical condition than at
the end of the tenth day, as his photo
graphs and the testimony of the physic-
ians clearly evince During the third
10 days he lost at the daily rate of II
ounces, but no serious symptoms APP
peared until he had completed 80 days
of his term. The elimination of urea,
which was 90 grammes a day when the
fast commenced, declined gradually I'M
til at the end of the tenth day it was -
grammes, at the end Of the twentieth
about II grammes, and at the end of the
thirtieth grammes. The method of
determination adopted by DR.. Van Der
Weyde was an original, but extremely
accurate one-an oxalic acid test based
upon the idea of taking advantage of the
insolubiity of urea in alcohol His data
are accordingly of high scientific value.
Near the conclusion of the third 10
days, DR.. Tanner began to have periodi-
cal attacks of of nausea and vomiting ac-
companied by febrile disturbance The
slight fever required every third day,
the gastric symptoms being a great deal
worse at each recurrence of the fever,
but never disappearing altogether. In
this condition he went on for the last
ten days of his extraordinary performance,
growing feebler and feebler as the DAYS
wore slowly on, but maintaining his
resolution to finish, or at least hold out
to the last extremity. That he should
continue in this way for ten days, eject
ing fragments of mucous membrane
daily, and finally commence taking food
without the slightest precaution, but
without single attack Of nausea from
the moment of terminating his fast, is
the most extraordinary fact of all. The
following is table of the loss III weight