The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1880-02-05

ued Fasting, Together WITH Several Curl
Gus Impostures in the Same Line.
DIR. William A. Hammond, in his in
tercsiing little volume on " Fasting
Girs," did not by any means exhaust
the subject 20 which attention Vas at
traeted last year bv the case of Molly
F&echer, and fnwhicif renewed Interest
viii now be taken because of the pro-
Posal already noticed in these columns
OF a physician in Minnesota to abstain
not only from medicine, which would be
less surprising. but from food Tor a long
period under conditions favorable to the
detection Of any imposture OF medieval
cases Or. Hammond cites several. There
was Lduine of Schiedam, who fell i'll III
1895 and remained an invalid till bel.
death, 80 years later, and who, after liv-
my for 10 years on "A piece of apple no
bigger than a,rhOly ,Wafes,Tevery day,
washed down Ehh a httIe rwaters a
swallow OF beer or q little sweet milk,
wound up finally gy taking nothing
whatever i'm the shape of nutriment for
II years. There was St. Joseph of Co
Pertino, who kept seven 40-day fasts ev-
cry year, during which seasons he ate
only on Thursdays and Sundays, his
food even then being bitter herbs and
dried fruits. There WIS sc. Nicolas OF
Fme (not to be. ce1iopnded,fith st. Mich
olas of the New YORK chfDiney) who, as
he had embraced the monastic life, ahan-
doned all food whatever save the Holy
Eucharist, which, according to the pious
CORES, SO assimilated his g'dsser being
Go itself that. introduced into a superior
sphere, he lived exclusively by grace
and by heaven. There was the nun of
Leicester, in the thirteenth century, who
also lived on the, Eucharist for seven
years; and there were those other holy
persons-Saint Peter of Aicantara, Saint
Rose of Lima, Saint Catbarine of Sienna,
and Saint Collete-Who also acquired
the power of living on the sacramental
bread. Fasting girls says DIR 4 Htni-
mOnd, came in with modern times, the
pi0us abstinents having vanished with
the Ages of FaitlsysV Margaret Weiss, a
girl of ten, living near Spfres, was ac--
credited with living for three years
without food or drink. = shes succeeded
IN deceiving the parish priest and DIR.
Geraidus Buccoldinps, Who watched her,
and the good doctor made a conun-,
drum out of her in his book narrating
her case: "Why does the body grow
when nothing goes inb0itT u essApp04i
tonia Schreira, a virgin in Berne, after
being examined and watched by the,
Bernese magistrates, WAS declared to
live without eating tsin the first year
of her fasting she scarcely slept, and in
the second year never once closed her
eyes in sleeps Katherine Binder of
81 = T. 5 D.
the Palatinate was said to have taken
nothing but air during nine years,
and Eva Fiegen, Of Meurs, according
% the magistrates and ministers, g took
no kind of sustenance for the space of
fourteen years together Cardinal
Richeleu's physician, Franeiscus Cite !
sius, tells of Joan Balaam Of Constance,
who after ans attack Of fever took
loathing to food, aud for nearly three
years abstained from it altogether, her
appetite subsequently returning. In
1895 there was brought to Cologne
girl of II who, it was affirmed. had
lived without food or drink of any kind
for three years. In this case, accord
ing to Dr. Hammond, organic disease
seems to have been complicated with |
fraud and hysteria. Perhaps we need 4
not cite the works of John Heydon, an
enthusiast of the Rosie Gross, vino held
that men could easily fast all their lives,
should the same even extend 800 wears,
and who fairly smacks his lips rs it .
were, like a very glittoh, over . the fine
foreign fairness 2 i'm the air which ought /
to be sufficient for. al, moderate folk. /
He admits that people of enormous APP
petites might from tinae to time indulge /
IN the additional stimulus of plaster of |
cooked meat applied to the epigastrum.
Chambers, however, prints a great I
many cases of alleged abstinence. ex-
tending over protracted periods. Among
these may be mentioned that of Ceciliask
Rygeway, whom Edward Ill pardoned /
April %, 1861, '.moTed by piety and I
for the glory of God and the Blessed !
Virgin, - who had wrought miracle IN
enabling her to live forty days in Not
tingham Jail without food cor drink,
when accused Of her husbands muir
der, and of John Scott, the Faster, a
man of Teviotdale, WHO an 1851 took
sanctuary in the Abbey OF Holyiood.
House, where he remained thirty Or
forty days without food, and then by or
der of the King was shut up in the
castle for 30 days. at the end of which
period tne bread and water left in the
cell with him were found 10 be I'M
touched. Scott afterwards, went to
Rome, where Clement VII. certified 10
the honesty of his abstinence, an exhib- I
ifion of which he gave also at Venice;
after his return, as he cLsiihed, from the 4
Holy Land, Scott went 10, Hondon,-
where, for preaching against Henry
VIII. s detection from the Church, and
his divorce from 1Safharine OF Arragon, I,r
he was cast ints a l,rsson, where he 1Ie-sE
manned for 5O'haSs, little disc6pcertea y
and still fasting 6aAlbeFgati ofsBonoma
investigated SCOTS ease an his own
house, and September, |, 1892. after a.
rial of II days, attsstsd ms belief that h
.he man lived without eating, The !
ease of Mary BeSlghtoh 81 Wfggiptoh,
in Staffordsnire, a IS also given, who j
lived on a spoonful OF milk and water a
lay, with piece ofEhfekd as large assa "a
or bit Of meat the size OF
/ pigeons egg. "Befhgof the AGhirch y
If England says the orthodox DIR.
Robert Plot, she is the less likely to t
put a trick upon the world. ''iE Then
here are the eases of Christina Niche /
OF of France, a girl of IL, who
rom Nove1nber,[ l75lgH to May,
iispiaying hothA appeEtet =
If Ann Walsh of Harrowgate, a girf of a
IL, who for Is months, beginning in
1862, subsisted solely on daily allaYr t
NICE of third of a pint of wine and |
water; of the sick boy al Chateauroux,