Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1886-12-25

excited by recent successful and unsuc-
cesstul attempts to sustain life, has in
duced me to state few facts not gener-
ally known in reference to this matter.
That life can be supported and preserved
and the ordinary duties performed on
diet comparatively simple and limited In
amount, is an admitted truth and ac-
cepted by most persons who have investi-
gated it. In 17l9 there lived certain
Thomas Wood, born OF Incorporate
parents. Up to the age OF 40 ne INDUCED
himself TO excess in meat of fatty nature
and in large quantities of those articles
OF diet containing fatty ingredients. such
as cheese, butter, and sugar, his beverage
being strong ale. He gradually developed
into man OF enormous dimensions, aud
complication after complication of dis
orders arising day by day, he became
alarmed at the inevitable, which stared
him in the face. He gradually cut down
his diet by degrees, diminishing his beer
to begin with, and then those diets con-
tanning sugar, and also animal flesh. He
ultimately allowed himself only pudding
made of sea biscuit. With this change
OF food all his symptoms disappeared, he
became metamorphOsed from monster
into man once again. The curious TACT
is that he abstained from all drink OF
whatever description. The 'sea pudding"
was composed as follows: Three pnts Of
SKINNED milk; this being boiled, was
poured on one pound OF sea biscuit
broken into pieces. This compound be-
ing boiled IN cloth for two hours. it be-
came pudding of sufficient consistency
to be cut with a knife, and on this alone
he subsisted for two years, enjoying
| splendid health, and with an absence OF
all those disagreeable symptoms before
mentioned. The quantity taken was IA
| pounds at O'Clock in the morning as his
breakfast, and the same quantity at noon
/ for dinner; after this hour he abstained
from all food until the next day. The
case of Wood is beyond all doubt, as two
clergymen, Two doctors, and the church
warden in the parish where he lived all
testified to the truth of the facts.
Tracing The history up OF fasters, we
come upon that of John Brown, q miner
in Ayrshire. He lived buried in a coal
miDe without swallowing anything but
small quantities of chalybeate water
sucked through a straw, this being suf-
ticIent to sustain life even in a oontami-
mated atmosphere, the nervous eXcita-
bility being thus diminished, ANA thus
mitigating the cravings OF hunger. This
Is most interesting case, and bears COM
| parlson at the present time with the
| Italian fasters and their wonderful
| drinks. At Liege some GOLFERS were shut
| up in pit for twenty-lOur days, and sus-
tanned their lives with water alone from
| fountain. Experiments were made aud
the water analysed. 1t was found to
| contain upon mountaineering extra
| ordinary, and only lime, or what is called
| "calX." The same constituent is sup
posed to have existed in The fluid which
supported John Brown, as before alluded
| to. Why should not this be the same in
! the case OF the Italians?-water impreg-
mated with lime suspended in solution.
only give it as a theory, and l think a
correct one. Elizabeth Woodcock, in
1899, lived eight days on snow water.
Cecilia Steers, il 1920, lived fifteen days
also on snow water alone. This came
from well thirty feet deep, and which
had been made for the purpose OF obtain
ing chalk. Here we have another in
| sSance of the "calX." In 1865 we read of
three women in Italy, buried for thirty
seven days in the snow, living on snow
water also impregnated with lime. In
| 1895 a Yorkshire gentlemen, aged 80,
absolutely was incapacltated from taking
food for thirty-six days. When in health
he weighed 240 pounds, and On the thirty
second day of his fast he was reduced TO
1873 pounds in weight. DR.. william relates
caseO of an abstainer living seventy-two
| days without punishment, on which day
he died exhausted. He lived only on
water favored with orange juice. Henry
| Welby, in 1857, for forty years, though OF
great wealth, never tasted either fish,
flesh or fowl. He died at the ripe old age
of 81. During the whole of his retirement
his chief food was oatmeal Cruel and a
salad OF cool herbs.
The longest time recorded in the annals
of physic In which a man existed without
food was sixty one days, the case being
that OF young man driven mad from
overwOrk. Alexander BenedIctus men.
tions a case at Venice where man lived
forty-siX days without FOOD. The history
| of France states that Louis the Plous,
| Emperor of France, who died in 1910, eX-
isIed forty days without food or drink.
Aloertus Magnus gives us the record OF a
woman OF Cologne, who lived for seven
weeks only on water. IL is said that
| Democritus lived to the eye of 100 years,
and tina In the latter part OF bis life, for
| forty days, ne lived on smelling honey
and hot bread. Raulin relates another
case where fifty-two days of fasting took
place on water alone. The Medical Ga
! Zette for July, 1888, contains Two re-
markable instances; one of these, a
| patient, is stated to have lived six years
without swallowing any food, the mouth
being occasionally moistened with water,
tea, or whey, which was not swallowed,
| but spat out. In the other case, which
was originally recorded by Prof. Rlcei, of
! Turin, an inability to take food existed
| for three years. There are many tradi.
| tions in all histories relating to the means
| employed by various individuals 10 sup
port life during danger and prlvatlon.
| The Indians of asia aud America, when
| they are bound for long journey where
there is possibility OF such state of
! affairs existing, prepare themselves for
| emergencies as follows: They mix the
| Juice of tobacco with powdered SHELLS in
! the form of small balls, which they retain
! in their mouths. The gradual solution
serves TO counterfeit the uneasy crayin K
| for food, it having been proved by expert
ment that clay introduced into the
stomach relieves hunger. In 1870 a
woman living at Yarmouth created con-
! siderable excitement and amazement in
| the world. She was reported TO have
| lived for seven years and half without
tasting food, her lips only moistened with
| water.
The manuscript department at the
| British Museum contains quaint
description OF the fasting OF Jane
Hodges sloan MS, 4,8ll). she lived in
| the year 1869 She suffered from hysteri-
| cal aphonia and neither ate nor drank for
nine weeks, so It, is reported. She was
under q delusion, and stated that "she
tasted for the sins of the people, and that
she was the saviour of the Nations" She
ultimately recovered and took food. In
1870 we read of the Lancashire tasting
girl" Ellen Sudworth, aged IL. This is,
however, not one ofclear abstaining from
| ani,d fond aa aha livod IN Uoufda q ~ a