The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-07-22
HUMAN POWER OF RESISTANCE.
Men Have Gone for Months Without
''
Food or Water.

From Harpers Weekly.
The tragedy of those fourteen miners
OF Courrieres who for nearly three weeks
were living in the depth of the mine,
feeding on decayed carcasses. bark, etc,
is still agitated in mining circles, as 1t
again demonstrated the extraordinary
power of resistance of human nature,
and shows abandoning the efforts for the
rescue of people tnclosed in collapsed
mine after three or four days to be ut
terly, perhaps, criminally, wrong. The
Journal of Paris, tells that in the year
1852 during the siege of Metz, the SOL
oilers of the Duke of Guise, for lack or
other food, prepared soups from boots
and leather belts.
The inhabitants of Paris once lived UNI
der Henry w, during a siege, on stlll
more repugnant meals. All grass Wnlch
could be found, even that growing De
tween the stones of the pavement, was
cooked into soups In a field oven erect
ed especially for this purpose delicious
pastries of ground zones were made up
during period of three weeks. ana the
necessary bones were obtained from
nearby cemetery. While Genoa was being
besleged in 1899 people there lived Tor
months on carrion Of every description:
BREAD was made of inseed, cocoa ana
e1Im and in addition other meals were
eaten which could scarcely be cooked,
much less be digested.
Wn>t occurred during the siege OF
Paris in 1871 is still in mind. People ate
almost all the animals of the Geological
garden. One of the butchers sold mon
kew and urchin meat, and canal rat as
well as dog meat became classical"
bakers family consumed during the siege
their entire shop. e., all their goods
and an aged tradeswoman stayed in her
basement for 143 days. living during all
that time on nothing but cheese. me
polar explorers knew even worse meals.
The pioneers of the pole considered raw
fish and polar bear meat delicious, ana
Nansen is authority for the statement
that he and his men were exceedingly de-
nshted when they succeeded In making
cakes with illuminating oil. From tarred
rigging of the ship and from the lichens
which were found on the desolate rocks
not infrequently the strangest soups were
made
In the year 1901 the well-digger Simon
of Ronneval. near Charities, was entomb-
cd nv fallen sand and remained so TOT
Ave DAYS. having nothing to eat or 10
drink In 1897 some miners In Waies were
rescued from an entirely HOODED NINE
after ten days, still alive. The water nao
already risen to their chins. Tnere are
however. still more remari s,.l $3.50
The London Philosophical TRANSACTIONS
fold of a man who had stayed IN d
cellar. covered by the debris or the puiio
ING twenty-four days without eating ana
drinking. italy. too. presents an instance
II is reported by Sonic, the physician OF
The King Of Sardinia: In Piedmont three
women had been overtaken py an ava
,e.,ato ard had been living when they
,,,ara resc,led on March 10. 1755, under the
dahris Of a stable for thirty-seven days
The stable was covered by layer or
.anv sixteen feet deep. but some josts of
the building had resisted the snow bur
den and beneath these joists the three
women were covering with the corpse of
a 2-year-old child that had died shortly
.ftsr The fall of the avalanche. One of
the women had had fifteen chestnuts,
and the stable contained hay and a goat.
THE goat had not been injured by the
accident. and the women lived ON her milk
for three weeks.
In Messina some men who had been