OF FOOD AND HUNGER. 213 



indifference, and this occurs chiefly among females. The most 

 extraordinary case that I recollect, stated too upon unquestion- 

 able authority,* is that of a young Scotch woman, who laboured 

 under an anomalous nervous affection, and, excepting that on two 

 occasions she swallowed some water, received no nourishment 

 whatever for eight years. She passed urine enough twice a week 

 to wet a shilling, and for three years had no motion, f 



In an extraordinary instance of imperfect abstinence during 

 fifty years, the woman voided a little feculent matter like a piece 

 of roll-tobacco or a globule of sheeps' dung, but once a year, 

 and that always in March, for sixteen years 4 



For every example of extraordinary abstinence among females, 

 we have a counterpart in voraciousness among males. When the 

 appetite is so great it is seldom nice, and not only all animals in 

 all states are devoured, but glass, flints, metals, sand, wood, &c". 

 A Frenchman named Tarare, and described by MM. Percy and 

 Laurent in some measure from their own observation, will 

 form a good contrast to the Scotch girl. When a lad he once 

 swallowed a large basket of apples after some person had agreed 

 to pay 'for them, and at another time a quantity of flints, corks, 

 and similar substances. The colic frequently compelled him to 

 apply at the Hotel Dieu ; but he was no sooner relieved than he 

 began his tricks again, and once was but just prevented from 

 swallowing the surgeon's watch, with its chain and seals. In 

 1789 lie joined the mob and obtained sufficient food without de- 

 vouring for money. He was then about seventeen, weighing a 

 hundred pounds, and would eat five-and-twenty pounds of beef 

 a day. When the war broke out he entered into the army, and 

 devoured his comrades' rations, as long as better supplies from 



* Philos. Trans. Vol. Ixvii. 



f JZiUnb. Mcd. and Phi/s. Essays. Vol. vi. 



* It would be interesting 1 to examine the changes induced in the air by the 

 lungs and skin of such patients. 



JJictionnaire des Sciences MMicales, art. Homophage. See also the former's 

 i\!''imii!v ,uy le I'olvph.iin- in Ui<_' Jnnriia! tic Jfcdeciite. Brumaire. Anxiii. 



