St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-07-06
ON MILK AND FRUIT.
4 Girl Lifting for Fo,r Monihs Without
Solid FOOD.

The little village of East River, on the
Shore line road, between Guilford and Madi-
son, and about Is miles east of this city, says
a New Haven correspondent of the New York
World, is the latest claimant to the possess
ion of that no longer infrequent phenomen-
on, person who lives without eating. Prof
Westbrook of New York, who recently at
tempted to live wholly on milk, and gave up
the experiment after four days trial, is put
entirely in the shade by Misa Lizzie Knowels
of East River, who has partaken OF nothing
but little fruit and drank nothing but milk
since the first week in February Of this year.
She preserves her health and strength on this
simple diet and is not only the sensation of
the hour for the residents of East River and
all the towns within radius of ten miles but
is also much sought after by the young swains
who are hunting for a wife whose board bill
is not likely to be an item worthy of con-
sideration in the domestic expenditures.
Miss Knowles is the 16-vear-old adopted
daughter of Henry D. Knowles, prosperous
and well-known resident of East River. She
is of medium hight and her form shows no
sign of emaciation. She is very pretty. Wv
acious and an entertaining conversationalist,
and is greatly admired by all who know her.
She was formerly an inmate of the Home for
the Friendless in East Thirtieth street, New
York. Her foster parents adopted her from
the institution, and gave her good home
and an excellent education. Two years ago
she was attacked with a disease that has
baffied the skill of many doctors. When first
taken i'll she became numb and all her nerves
were paralyzed. She lost her voice and was
very weak, but her muscles were unaffected,
and she retained all her powers of motion.
Her prostration continued for nearly three
months, when she gradually recovered
strength, and is now able to attend to do
nestle duties. Her voice has not wholly re-
turned, and, although everything she says is
perfectly distinct, it is uttered in a low but
peculiarly pleasant whisper.
The strange part of Miss KnowePs case, how
everis that as her strength returned her appe-
tte failed. At first she lost all desire for meat
and finally her stomach refused to retain it,
Then her desire to eat anything at all grew
gradually less, and during the latter part of
last and the early portion of this year she
rarely ate more than one or two meals
week. For some time her food, what little
she ate, comprised several kinds, but she
took dislike to one article after another, I'M
til nothing remained that would tempt her ap
petite except fruit and milk, and on these
two articles of diet alone she has been living
since last February. Her principal nourish-
ment is milk. She partakes but sparingly of
fruit, and it seems probable that she will
abandon it entirely. That she does not do
this of her own free will is evident from the
fact that twice since last February she has at
tempted to retain food Of other descriptions,
but her stomach rejected it. About two
weeks ago she swallowed an oyster but her
stomach would not retain it.
A reporter from the World visited her res
idence to day, and after obtaining from Mrs.
Knowels, the young lady's foster mother, the
facts above narrated, asked the young lady as
a special favor to him, to swallow mouth
full of beef-broth in his presence. Miss Know
els complied with the request, but hardly had
she taken the spoon from her lips when the
stomach rejected the liquid. Mrs. Knowles
assured the reporter that her adopted daugh-
ter's health was good aside from an occasion
ally slight recurrence of the numbness with
which she was first attacked. She added that
Lizzie was strong and assisted her in house
hold duties. Another curious feature about
the young lady's condition is that her loath-
ing for food is so great that she cannot aid
in preparing the daily meals, nor can she
Oe present. III Ine ulnlHS TOou With tue ldiu-
lily are at the table. The mere sight of food
is sufficient to produce the most violent nau-
sea. She has been under the care of a num-
Der of eminent physicians, including DR.. Girls
void of New York. They have watched her
symptoms from time to time and have con-
suited with one another regarding this
strange case, but are unable to explain it
except under the head of nervous disease of
the stomach. They all pronounce her aver
sion to food perfectly genuine and say that
it is absolutely beyond her control. The
young lady herself is very modest and retir-
ing in her manner and feels very much en-
barrassed by the attention she is attracting.