The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1880-08-05


published.
DR.. Fl. 6. TANNER at noon on
Saturday will have completed his
fast. During the period since the
Commencement of his forty days
test, no man in the country has
occupied 60 notorious a position.
Every day his condition, weight,
temperature, pulse, ETC., have been
teiegraphed over the whole nation;
and the journals have teemed with
extended accounts Of his progress. 1t
has awakened an interest in the fast.
ing business, and one of the results of
tais. interest has been inquiry into
like cases that have taken place in
the past. No one would have believed
there had been so many forty day
fasters, and few will ever believe the
remarkable stories now going the
rounds of the press in this connection.
The Boston TfaUeLer tells Of a case
that occurred some ten years ago:
''Dr. Mayo G.. Smith, of NeWbury-
port, tasted forty-six days, during all
that time tasting neither food nor
water. he attended to bis regular
business, visited frisnds, and made no
change, except in fasting from bis
usual routine of life. After the first
week all feelings OF hunger and thirst
subsidized, and be said, at the close of
his forty days fast, be felt strong
enough to fast forty days longer. He
believed that there is nutriment in
the atmosphere to sustain human
life in a healthy person indefinitely.
His fast took place in the winter,
when people consume more food than
a. any other season. He was in the
habit of cutting a hole in the ice
when the thermometer was below
zero, and plunging in naked, and of
walking ten or twelve miles after.
ward. On one occasion be plunged
into the River Merrimac, and in
climbing up a ships cable, The
weather was so cold that the iron
links of the cable took tie skin from
his hands and feet" This same man
Is now said to be living at Colorado
Springs, is 10 the beat of health and
yet vigorous and handsome, though
hs is nearly 80 years Of age.
Another case is that of a
woman named Cecilia, wife
of Johannes de Rygewsy, who was
indicted for the murder of her hus-
bani, and refusing to plead, she was
suble ted to absolute deprivation of
sustsnance, the usual punishment
prescribed for standing mute. "
Having sustained this without food or
drink for forty days, she received the
Kings pardon.
Other instances are also given:
John Parvianes, native Of Finland,
80 years old, was convict in the New
jersey state prison, at Trenton, during
the year 1874, and It is averrei that he
"fasted forty days in July and August"
He was melted to fast by reading the
Scriptural accounts of the Ssvior's fast
ing forty days, and of the fasting Of
Moses and Elijah. DR.. W. w. L..
Phillips, of Trenton, who was state
prison physician at that time, watched
Parvisnes closely, and was satisfied that
he took 10 nourishment of any kind ex-
cept water and ice. The prisoner re-
fused food when it was offered to him,
but at the end of the forty days he ate s
boiled salmon, boiled egg, aud drank a
glass Of whisky. Some time Rfterward
his mind became deranged, and now he
is an inpste of the New Jersey Asylum
LOT the 1ussHe- He told DR.. Phillips
that he once tasted for twenty-eight days
without injuring himself physically or
mentally. Toward .he end of his forty
day fast he was almost q skeleton.
There was some years ago in the Block
ley almshouse a man named Thomas
Virgins, who persisted in declaring that
he was Jesus Christ, and started out TO
lmllaJo the SaVlor Dy Iastlng forty DAYS
and nights. He succeeded in doing
without food for thirty-five days, when
his reason gave out, and the process of
restoration was begun; but nature had
been oveItsxed, ana he lived bat forty-
eight hc1rs. The first seven days of bis
fast he existed on . small bottle of por-
ter, with few swallows of water. When
he died he was very much emacisted. A
post norton examination showed that all
his vital organs were very much con-
tracted-his heart weighed six ounces,
his stomach was one-third the normal
size ana bloodless, in the right lung there
was tubereulous cavity considerably
lsrger than q goose egg, and there were
also tubereles scattered through the left
lung.
But the most remarkable instance
ever recorded is given here:
The wife of Mr. Harvey Cruzen, about
twenty years sgo. had been deranged for
about three yesrs-so much so some of
the time that she had 10 be confined by
her friends. On the 18th of September |
last she declared her determination 10 |
commit suicide by starvation. A night or
two previous she had taken from her hus- |
bands packet soms $40 in money, and ]
announced her intention to start for Ohio.