Evening journal., 1890-11-08
SUCCPS STRANGE FAST.
To Live for Forty Days on
Croton Water
WITHOUT LOSING HIs STRENGTH


Seem to Form Diet Upon which the
Mysterious Italian rhrives.
NEW YORK, Nov. s.-Still watched with
untiriRg scrutiny by the reporters and the |
physicians Of Bellevue, Sgnor Suoei has |
passed the second and entered upon the |
third day Of his puzzling fast. 10 show
how little forty eight hours Of complete
abstention from food can affect him, one
Of the last things this remarkable man
did before he went to bed was 10 fence
with broadswords until the perspiration
poured down his face This after day Of
dumbbel exercising, walking, talking
and nervous activity. Bnt it is nothing to
the strange things the case will present
before it is over IL Signor Succi keeps his
| promises Physicians besides those who
are on the Bellevue staff came in frequent
| ly during the day and discussed the Curl
GUS phases of Signor Succis record.
Theories of the Physicians.
Your true medical mind is a hopper for
facts and a spiggot for opinions. Getting
these bright young men to say whether, IN
| their judgment, Succi was q paranoiac,
| hypnotic, fraud or an abnormal being
was like getting blood out of a grindstone.
Possibly it might be case of paranoia.
Paranoia was a pretty generous term and
about as broad IN its provisions as charity.
II was generally defined TO mean definite
delusion Yes, Succi might have a definite
delusion. though IL was hard to say how It
could be supposed to produce a condition
Of extreme endurance in the stomach. At
tempted fasting is a common manifesta-
ton Of insanity anyway. It happens so
frequently that asylum physicians are pro
vided with an apparatus like reserved
stomach pump for pumping food into re-
5 | fratory maniacs. 10 was pointed out at
. once by the physicians that Succi's per-
E formance might result in a modification Of
s this practice and forced feeding generally.
II it could be shown that the physical con
dition did not suffer materially during the
fast, it at once becomes a question whether
il would not be better to let the patient 20
4 without food until he got ready to eat.
Provided always that IL appeared that
!, Succi was not an abnormal specimen OF
4 humanity.
Forty Days without Food.
!. How can man live forty days without
J food and be stronger on the thirty-nintf
K day than on the first. and as strong on the
r twenty-second day as when in a norma
II condition Of regular feedingf When Suoo
Y went through his last fast, At the Roya
"a aquarium In London, the physicians issues
y daily bulletins Of his condition, Just az th
Bellevue physicians are doing now.
4 any one doubts the extraordinary main
III tenance Of strength which Succi asserts
* he has only TO look over these bulletins
le While Succi's strength was increasing un
of der the tremendous strain of his fast, hi
as weight was steadily decreasing in the rati
] | which medical men would expect in sucl
K condition.
n On the first day Of the fast he weighe
III 127 pounds ounces. On the forfeit
IN day he weighed ninety-two pounds. II
10 lost eighteen pounds in the first ten days
From the tenth to the twentieth he lost ST.
pounds; from the twentieth to the thil
tieth, six pounds, and from the thirtiet
s to the end, five pounds, six ounces. Tn
Il anomaly Is therefore presented Of ma
~ losing thirty-five pounds in weight an
NJ fasting forty days without losing particl
N Of his strength and vigor.
VS. Not Hypnotism.
10 Among the doctors who were watchin
d. Succi yesterday it WAS argued that it coul
es not be the result Of training and practicl
"a, because under natural laws the more ma
be endured Of this sort Of thing the more h
in constitution would DO impaired and tt
er less he would be able 10 endure. On I'll
th other hand it couldn't be hypnotism, b
mt cause the patient was evidently under q
he control but his own, and was not oblige
nd to do what he didn't will to do.
IN what succi Says About IL.
3D. When these points had been debated Il
in a while Sncci himself came TO the help
3 a the doctors with his own explanation
p somewhat weakened In value by the ia
in, that he can't talk English worth a cen
les AS near as could be got at this was VIII
zen he said Il can fast forty days because
will do IL. / make up my mind. ! strugg
with myself l get the better Of myse
Then it is all settled. can fast as long
as, like"
az He Smokes Almost Constantly.
M This may not have thrown flood Of lig
nv upon the struggling minds OF the inves
IA eating doctors, but apparently it gave q
~ signor unbounded satisfaction, not TO 81
Il. delight. One OF the incomprehensih
~ things with which Succi's case bristles Z
Nj, over like battery is his enormous co
say sumption of tobacco. In the twenty-fo
ba hours ending at midnight Thursday
,.ss smoked twenty strong cigars. From
4 D. m. TO 10 midnight he smoked at the ra
aia OF a cigar every three quarters Of an hol
ne
~ almost ready TO throw up both hands
tbe smoke as much as one cigar before brea
fast Is commonly considered difficult a
somewhat dangerous feat. To smoke thu
or four would probably cause heart failI
rom in three-fourths of the experienced smS
ven ers in the world. To smoke ten during
az day without taking any food into on
,pes stomach would be equivalent TO suicide
Re Yet here was a man who had touched
,nly food for twenty-four hours and burr
ats cigar after cigar with no more appar
. G effect than if he were made Of copI
ley A Diet OF CrotOn Water and Exercis'
who just as he and his attendants had I
true dicted the faster's condition was consid
ived ably improved yesterday. He was
free nearly so nervous and looked in excell
health. When he awoke he grabbed
sixteen pound dumb bells and slung th
up and down for fifteen minutes, got
ialet another appetite for sleep and slept acco
one, ingly until i2.
IDLY Foils and his saber were the things {
} the interested him at 2. He had the VIII
end outfit lugged from the back room 1
bout longed for somebody TO have a bout wi
ex Somebody of that kidney falling TO
and pear, he had a bout with himself, go
sui through the fencing and broadsword
ercises with fiery enthusiasm for ten n
utes. After which, by way OF dessert,
minutes of the dumbbells, the whole be
reeni washed down with three ounces of Gro
Jo- water. the first be had taken all day.
man. reporters have found nothing to arc
lrrel, snsnicion in any Of the arrangement