Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1911-05-14
ABNORMAL
APPETITES
OF PEOPLE
nondon Daily News.l

were recorded by Mr.. W. Soltau Fen
wick, NJ. D., in an address delivered
at the Institute Of Hygiene yesterday
to a select audience of doctors, nurses
and other experts.
Various odd devices, he said, We're
resorted to in former days to stimu-
late a tagging appetite, such as the
drinking of spiced wines, the dropping
of coins of cold metal down the back
or sometimes a little exercise or gen
tie alteration was indugled in be-
tween the courses 10 settle the food
in the stomach" It became the habit
at later period to scratch or fondle
the lobe of the right ear to stimulate
the flow of gastric juice, as the nerve
which supplies this part of the skin
has direct connection with the great
nerve of the stomach.
Every one was said to possess the
stomach he deserved, and there could
be no doubt that, within certain lin
it's, our digestions we're of our own
making. The stomach was the most
educable organ OF the body, and one
could reduce it's activities to a degree
which was only just compatible with
the preservation Of life, or one could
train it to perform twice the work
which nature ever intended it to do
An average man at the age of 80
had consumed about % tons of food,
: but some people easily consumed three
times that amount They never knew
when they had enough. There was ali
authentic case of a little girl VINO
/, had to have keeper to prevent her
from eating the household goods. One
day she consumed a raw Goldfish, sew
eral pounds of candles and a quantity
of butter before she was cought. A
boy when placed under observation,
got through 100 pounds of raw meat in
"A hours. Attempts to cure this in
satiable hunger invariably failed.
Another lad who was shut up and kept
without food was found to have eaten
practically all his clothing.
MANY people, continued DR.. Fen
wick, possess an extraordinary rel
ish for common salt. This often has
the curious effect of increasing ones
weight, One young lady who devour-
ed immense quantities of salt would
increase as much as 10 pounds in "a
hours. If you can persuade people
not to take so much salt, they may
get we'll; if not they die of dropsy.
Many girls will devour slate pencils,
chalk and vinegar because nearly all
of these have at some time or other
2 identifying qualities.
Through eating meat on which flies
e or other insects had laid their eggs
J or similarly, green stuff which might
y contain insects, people often harbor
I larvae in their stomachs. A wire
0 screen is no real protection for meat
5 as flies drop their eggs through IT.
4 Early examples were recorded in which
+ strange insects and animals had been
i eaten and lived afterwards. These in
f cluded beetles, frogs, snakes, sala-
e manders, leeches and the common gar
= den clug.
/ Young children often acquire ab-
1 normal tastes and one of the mosi
: common of these is paper eating. Hair
L eating is confined to rich girls, and
=. a number of instances are on record in
which death resulted from the forma-
ton of a great ball of hair in this
stomach. Balls of thread, flock, tow Or
mating fiber were sometimes found in
the stomachs of those who worked with
these materials
Substances, too, which were often
taken, in the first instance, for amuse-
| ment by frequent repetition led to insa.
table desire. Thus sword-swallow.
ers, knife eaters, glass chewers and
the like not only continued their prac-
tees for years, but actually go to re-
ish them. The speaker mentioned the
case of a seaman who could not re-
sist the temptation to chew up and
swallow a tumbler after he had drunk
it's contents; and those of two boys,
: one of whom ate sand when he could
get it, while the other begged, borrow
ed or stole watches in order to swal-
low them.