Western sentinel. [volume] (Winston [i.e. Winston-Salem], N.C.) 1856-1886, 1880-08-19
tanners Folly.

by any theory OF morals, DIR.
! Tanner was condemned from the
outset. He proposed TO injure
himself, thing which no sane man
does, except for cause. Wha. mo-
tive did the faster assign! Simply
desire to prove that the physiolo~
gists were wrong in asserting that
human life could not be sustained
more than ten or twelve days with
out food, and that he could endure
forty days abstinence. Suppose,
instead of attacking this dictum of
the psychologists, he had ridicnled
the belief that man cannot survive
the Simultaneous amputation OF
both legs at the hip-jojnt and both
arms at the shoulder, and had pre-
parco to undergo that somewhat
sweeping sacrifice of his members
merely to confound the doctors.
Or suppose that he had offered to
discharge a revolver four or five
times into his abdomen just to show
the Faculty that shotgun wounds
of the peritoncum are not necessari-
ly fatal. In either of these hypo-
thctical cases the man wonld have
been called stark staring mad at
once. But the difference between
such tests and that of fasting for
forty days is really not worth CON
sidering, and forcible interference
With Dr.. Tanners experiment at
very early stage Of its progress
would have been perfectly justifi-
able on the ground of his moral ir-
responsibility, or on the other
ground we have indicatcd-that lie
was mere trickster.
Now that the forty days are
over, it is more appropriate to con-
slider what the foolish doctor has
to show for all his groanings and
writings aud retchings. In the
first place, he has rot done what
he set out to do. He did not adj
stain from food for tho period
claimed. In the absence of any
clear proof to the contrary, the
public will acqnit him of gross IN
territorial fraud. 1t is not probable
that he received beefsteaks in bou-
quets, or chops and tomato sauce
in towels. But at several highly
critical stages of his experiment
he took alcohol vapor baths. AL
cohol is food, aud also stimu-
liant. Iu both capacities it would
have been rigIdly barred out of q
fairly conducted fast. DR.. Tan
ner's repeated use of the vapor
bath vitiates his claim to have
tasted forty days. 1t can be said
with perfect fairness, that he fast
ed till his suffellngs were past
endurance, and then took a little
nou,i>hment in the form of alcohol
vapor to ease himself along till
his time was up. :.
To be sure, we learn that
II au of DR.. Tanner 5 constitution
and temperament can live forty
days without meat and potato If
he has a bath of the vapor of al
cohol occasionally that be will
get very cross and be subject to
vioIeht attacks Of nausea, during
which lie will throw up small piec-
es of the lining membrane Of the
stomach that the daily elimiDa-
| ton of urea will undergo Il dimi-
nuticn from The normal amount Of
twenty DiEe grdmmes on the first
day to six grammes on the tbiiti-
eth day /; that the blood will show
20 material change, except that
the edges of the red corpuscles
Will have all irregular serrated
appearance toward the close Of the
fast, or, more correctly, the pal tial
fast. No physiological principle
OF any Importance can be deduced
from these facts, nor from the Ie-
corded changes in the faster's
weight, strength. and pulse.
On the contrary, a record of the
daily amount of carbon thrown off
by the lungs and skin and Of its