The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-06-28
e1urroNs AND GLUTroNY.
angular Instances of Monstrous APP
petite and its Indulgence.


From the London Standard.
Gluttony," says the Shepard in Wilson's
..Noctes Ambrosiana," "may be defined as
-, immoral and unintellectual abandon
,rant of the sowl o. man to his gustative ma
+ure. defy brute animal to be glutton.
A swine's no glutton. Nae creatur but man
oon be a glutton. All the rest are prevented
tv the definition" Not much fault can be
found with this definition of gluttony, ex-
cept in one rather important particular
that the craving for food is not always
prompted by desire to indulge the palate, but
;s caused by what is virtually disease.
Tbare are several cases of this kind recorded
in the various medical journals, two of the
most remarkable of which relate to French
ven In the ''Dictionnaire des Sciences
Medicales," DIR. Percy relates that of a SOL
der named Tarare. This man was born
near Lyons and came up to Paris, where his
tirst exploit was to eat basket of apples at
a friends expense. On various occasions he
cxallowed series of corks and other indi-
qestible materials, which produced such
Siolent collie that he was obliged to attend
the Hotel Dieu, and while being examined
almost managed to swallow the watch and
chain and seals of the surgeon in attendance,
M Giraud. On the occasions of one of
these attacks of collie it was tried to fright
an him out of his gross habits by declaring
that it would be necessary to open his stom-
aoh. and the doctor proceeded to arrange
his instruments accordingly. Tarare, how
aver. found an opportunity to run away,
and relieved himself by taken copious
dyauQhts of warm water. Soon after he
Found that his appetite had really increased
to an excessive amount, probably owing to
the irritation produced by these absurd
TRICKS At II years of age, when
only weighing 100 pounds, he could eat
twenty-four pounds of beef in as many
hours. He now entered the army, and, be-
ing recognized by the surgeon-major, M.
C0urville, of the ninth regiment of HusSarS,
was detained for the sake of curiosity.
From the day of his admission he was or
dered quadruple rations, with pickings and
waste meat, but often slipped into the dis
pensary and lads hands on anything eata-
BILE. One day he was observed to seize
large cat, and, after sucking his blood, left
in very short time only clearly picked
bones. the hair being rejected, in the course
of half an hour, like that of other carnivo-
ra He was fond of serpents and cells, swal-
lowing them whole. On another occasion
. he consumed in few minutes a repast
spread out for fifteen German workpeople,
of milk. ETC., after which he was blown out
like a balloon. In the presence of some
officers he swallowed. at one sitting, thirty
pounds of liver and lights. His insatible appe-
lite for once in his life, made useful by his
being selected to carry a correspondence be-
tween General Beauharnais and French
Colonel, which was inserted in box and
swallowed; but he was caught and soundly
thrashed On one occasion he fell under
suspicion of having eaten child fourteen
months old, 1t is affirmed that he was of
mild and gentle manners and aspect. After
death his stomach was found in very dis
eased condition The other case is related
by writer in the Medical and Physical
Journal, who tells that a Frenchman named
Charles Domery, aged twenty-one, six feet
three inches high, and thin, though well
made when prisoner OF war at Liverpool,
consumed in one day four pounds Of cows
udder and ten pounds of beef, both raw, to-
ge.her with two pound of tallow candles
and five bottles of porter. He was allowed
the rations of ten men and still was not sat-
isfied.
Some ancient and medieval cases must,
however be taken cum granO sails. Thus
Fuller. in his, "Worthies," states that one
Nicholas Wood, of Harrison, in Kent,
ate whole sheep raw, costing sixteen shll-
hngs-a good sum in those days-at one
meal, and at another time thirty dozen OF
pigeons. AT Sir w. Sidney's in the same
county, he ate as many victuals as would
have served thirty men. At Lord Wooton's
mansion he devoured at one dinner eighty
four rabbits, which, by computation of half
a rabbit each man. would have served l6S
men. He once ate at his breakfast elgh-
teen yards of black pudding. More, Fuller
even asserts that he devoured whole hog
at one sitting, with three pecks OF damsonS
which is rather a large order. both to
consume and believe. But Woods exploits
pale before those of the Emperor Claudius
Albinus, who would devOur more than a
bushel of apples at one time just by way OF
an appetizer: he would eat at his breakfast
500 figs, 100 peaches, 10 melons, 20 pounds
of grapes and 400 oysters. After such a
meal, we'll may Lepsius, who relates the
story. exclaim, "Fye upon him; God keep
sush a curse from the earUh!" OF one Pha-
gan, who lived during the reign of Aureli-
anus, it is related that at one meal he would
eat a whole boar and drink more than three
gallons of wine When an individual of this
kind was presented to King James l. and that
monarch was informed that he could eat a
whole sheep at single meal, James inquired
what he could do in any other way more than
another mana When answered that he
could not do so much-"Hang him then,
said the king, ''for it is unfit man should
live that eats as much as twenty men and
cannot do so much as one" Hardicanute
was so great a glutton that one of his hlsto-
rians calls him ''Swine's mouth" His Ia
bleS were covered four times DAY Win the
most costly viands that the air, sea or land
could furnish. His gluttony killed him. for
he fell down dead at a wedding banquet at
Lambeth, and with him expired the Danish
sway in England.
But gluttony is everywhere to be found.
In rural England eating matches are com
mon to this day. One held at a small vii
lage in Yorkshire some time ago between
two men named Gubbins and Muggins was
the cause of good deal Of local excitement.
A countryman, leaving the place little be-
fore the match came to a conclusion, was
stopped by almost every one on the road
with the query, "Who beatsa How does the
match get onP and so forth, to which he
answered, why OF doan't exactly knaw-
they say Gubbins'll get it; but OF thinks
Muggins'il boat i'm yet, for when left he
wor only two geefe an a turkey behind
him" Southey narrates an ancedote OF a
large eater who would probably have held
his own with either Gubbins or Muggins.
81 saw Major Cartwright" he writes, Tin
1891. l was visiting with the Lambs at
Hamstead, in Kent, at the house of Hold
ges, his brother-in-law; we had nearly flu
ished dinner when he came in. He desired
the servant to cut him plate of beef from
the sideboard. l thought the footman
meant to insult him; the plate was piled to
aheight which no ploughboy, after hard
days fasting, could have lovelledi but the
~. u ga.-l i