The Dickinson press., 1905-07-29
NOTED FASTERS

Ol Ed
.FEATssoF PERSONS WHO WENT LONG
PERIODS WITHOUT FOOD.
The Remarkable Case OF a.; French
Girl Who Lived For Nearly Four
Years ON Water .~Alone-Easts Of the
Famous Englishman. John scott.
How long is 1t possible for man to
maintain life without food. Of any de.
scription, liquid or solid7 At the aqua
rum two hunger artists" Signor Sue.
q and NJ. Alexandra Jacquez,, some
years ago tied for premier honors in
England by abstaining from food for
forty-two days, and in the eighties Of
the last century a man named Merlat-
Il maintained health and spirits for
6fty days on q Spartan diet limited to
sips of water.
But even such feats as these are
mere pauses between meals compared
with some Of the fasts Of still more re.
mote generations, II we are to believe
contemporary records. Thus we learn
that a young French girl. Christina
Michelot, after an attack Of fever was
utterly unable to swallow any form Of
food and from November. 1851. to
July, 1755, swallowed nothing at all
more sustaining than water. Remark:
able to say, after nearly four years Of
this starvation diet she gradually re-
covered her health and lived long In
the land.
For a year and three-quarters, it IL
said, 4 R0ss-shire woman named K3sth-
crime. Mcleod aoSa& lived without
partaking of any '1orn Of sustenance.
Once during this period an attempt
was made to force food down her
throat, but the woman narrowly q.
capped suffocation, and the attempt
had to be abandoned.
A Harrogate girl of twelve. Ann
Walsh, lived for eighteen months on a
daily glass of wine and water, a die
tary on which she somehow managed
to preserve health and good looks;
Monica Mutcheteria, a Swabian, spent
q whole year without swallowing
either food or drink, and for three
years she slept, while DR.. william,
an eighteenth century physician, had
among his patients a m~onomaniac who
for sixty-one days refused to touch
food of any description.
About the same time, too, we are In
formed that d French peasant boy of
C~hateaurout was never known to par
take of food during twelve months. and
yet was able to. do a good days work
on his fathers farm.
DR.. Plot, in his Natural History of
Staffordshire," tells a remarkable story
of a woman, one Mary Waughton Of
Wigginton. who appears to have re-
duced the problem of living to its low
est material limits. Thus, says her
historian, "she does not eat in a day
a piece above the size of half a crown
in bread and butter. or, il meat. not
above the quantity Of a pigeons egg
at most" while her only beverage was
q spoonful of milk and water daily.
and yet. although this was Mary's mod
est fare year after year. she is de-
scribed as "a maiden of fresh com.
plexion and healthy enough"
Another Staffordshire. worthy Of the
eighteenth century, n John Adams,
lived for thirty years, itissaid, on a daily
crust of bread and q glass of water,
and yet was famed for his muscular
strength and his blowing perform
ances. Unfortunately we do not know
what John ate when nobody was look
ing. =
In the two cases which follow we get
on to more reliable ground, since the
feats described are little more remark
able than those Of our own time. In
1771 q Stamford man made q wager
of f10 that he would touch neither food
nor drink for ifty-one days, and he
won his bet handsomely. The records.
however, are silent Is to the price he
afterward paid for his defiance Of ma
ture. ~
The second Of these old time fasters
was the famous John Scott Of Teviot-
dale, whose fasts have survived to our
own day enshrined in border verse.
Johns first experiment as a faster was
when he was incarcerated for not pay
ing his creditors. So indignant was
he that not a mouthful Of prison fare
passed his lips for thirty-two days.
The fame Of this feat got abroad, and
the king, curious to test the man I'M
der stringent conditions, had MIN
locked up with a loaf Of bread and a
Jug of water In q room in Edinburgh
castle.
When the door was opened at the
end of thirty-two days the bread and
water were quite untouched, and John
seemed one the worse for his Austen
ton. In later years Scott exhibited his
powers as a modest eater to the pope.
and his fame became great throughout
Europe, while to crow his fasting per-
formances when he was thrown into
prison for railing against one Of Hen
~ Wills divorces he threw all his
" records into the shade by going
without bite or sup for fifty days.
London Tit-Bits. J