Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1905-08-08
Feats of People Who Have Gone With
out Foor For Months.

Feats of People Who Have Gone With
out Foor For Months.
How long is it possible for man to
maintain life without food Of any de-
scription. liquid or solid? At the mo-
ment Of writing a Vienna champion
faster is trying the experiment for
three weeks: but this period falls so far
short of existing records that the feat
scarcely reaches the dignity Of a fast.
At the Aquarium two hunger artists"
Signor Succi and M. Alexandra Jac-
ques, some years ago tried for premier
honors in England by abstaining from
food for forty-two days; and In the
SOS man named Merlatti maintained
health and spirits for fifty days on a
Spartan diet limited to sips Of water.
But even such feats as these are
mere pauses between meals compared
with some Of the feats Of past genera
tions, If we are to believe contemporary
re cords. Thus we learn that 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. 1855, swal-
lowed nothing at all more sustaining
than water. Remarkable to say, after
nearly four years of this starvation
diet she gradually recovered her
health and lived long in the land. For
a year and three-quarters Katherine
Mcleod actually lived without partak-
ing of any form Of sustenance. Once
during this period an attempt was
made to force food down her throat,
but the woman narrowly escaped suf-
location and the attempt had to be
abandoned.
A Harrogate girl of IL. one Ann
Walsh, lived for eighteen months on
a daily glass of wine and water-a
dietary on which she somehow man
aged to preserve health and good
looks; Monica Mutcheteria, a Swa-
bian. spent a whole year without
swallowing either food or drink, and
for three years she never slept; while
DR.. william, an eighteenth century physi-
clan, had among. his patients a mono
maniac who for sixty-one days refused
to touch food of any description.
About the same time, too, we are in
formed that a French peasant boy
of ChateaurouX was never known to
partake 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 remarkable
story Of woman, one Mary Wasugh-
ton or Wigginton, who appears to
have reduced the problem of living to
its lowest material limits. Thus, says
her historian, "she does not eat in
day a piece above the size of a half
crown in bread and butter, or, il meat
not above the quantity of a pigeons
egg at most" while her only beverage
was a spoonful of milk and water
daily. And yet, although this was
Mary's modest fare year after year, she
Is described as "a maiden of fresh COM
plexion and healthy enough" Another
Staffordshire worthy Of the eighteenth
century, one John Adams, lived for
thirty years, 1t Is said, on daily crust
of bread and a glass Of water, and yet
was famed for his muscular strength
and his ploughing performances. Un-
fortunately, we do not know what John
ate when nobody was looking.
In the two cases which follow we get
on to more reliable ground, since the
able than those Of our own time. In
1771 a Stamford man made wager OF
G 10 that he would touch neither food
nor drink for fifty-one days, and he
won the bet handsomely. The records,
however, are silent as to the price he
afterwards paid for his defiance of ma
ture.
The second Of these old time fasters
was the famous John Scott, Of Teviont
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 pass
ed his lips for thirty-two days. The
fame of this feat got abroad, and the
King, curious to test the man under
stringent conditions, had him locked
up in a room in Edinburgh Castle.
When the door was opened at the
end of thirty-two days, John seemed
none 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 crown his fasting per
formances, when he was thrown into
prison for railing against one OF Henry
Wis divorces, he threw all his own
| records into the shade by going with
| out "bite or sup" for fifty days.-Tlt-
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