NATURAL HISTORY. 



365 



statement, to which I beg you to 

 subjoin such reflections as may oc- 

 cur to you on this subject. 



I am, my dear sir. 

 Your most obedient humble servant, 

 J. Johnston. 

 To Gilbert Blane, M. D. 



F. R. S. and one of the 



commissioners of sick 



and wounded seamen. 



hungry did not wait to perform this 

 humane office. 



Dogs and rats equally suffered 

 from hismercilessjaws; andifmuch 

 pinched by famine, the entrails of 

 animals indiscriminately became his 

 prey. The above facts are attested 

 by Plcard, a respectable man, who 

 was his comrade in the same regi- 

 ment, on board the Hoche, and is 

 now present ; and who assures me, 

 he has often seen him feed on 

 those animals. 



When the ship, on board of which 

 he was, had surrendered, after an 

 obstinate action, finding himself, as 

 usual, hungry, and nothing else in 

 his way but a man's leg, which was 

 shot off", lying before him, he at- 

 tacked it greedilj^ and was feeding 

 heartily, when a sailor snatched it 

 from him, and threw it overboard. 



Since he came to this prison, he 

 has eat one dead cat, and about 

 twentv rats. But what he delights 

 most in is raw meat, beef or mut- 

 ton, of which, though plentifully 

 supplied, by eating the rations of 

 ten men daily,* he complains he 

 lias not the same quantity, nor in- 

 dulged in eating so much as he used 

 to do, when in France. 



He often devours a buUock'sliver 

 raw, three pounds cf candles, and 

 a few pounds of raw beef, in one 

 day, without tasting bread or vege- 

 tables, washing it down with wa- 

 ter, if his allowance of beer is ex- 

 pended. 



His subsistence at present, inde- 

 pendent of his own rations, arises 

 from the generosity of the prisoners, 

 who give him a share of their allow- 

 ance. Nor is his stomach confined 



Charles Domery, a native of 

 Benche, on the frontiers of Poland, 

 aged twenty-one, was brought to 

 the prison of Liverpool, in February, 

 1 799, having been a soldier in the 

 French service, on board the Hoche, 

 captured by the squadron under the 

 command of sir J. B. Warren, off" 

 Ireland. 



He is one of nine brothers, who, 

 with their father, have been re- 

 markable for the voraciousness of 

 their appetites. They were all 

 placed early in the army ; and the 

 peculiar craving for food with this 

 young man began at thirteen years 

 of age. 



He was allowed two rations in 

 the army, and by his earnings, or 

 the indulgence of his comrades, 

 procured an additional supply. 



When in the camp, if bread or 

 meat were scarce, he made up the 

 deficiency, by eating four or five 

 pounds of grass daily ; and in one 

 year devoured 174 cats (not their 

 "skins) dead or alive ; and says, he 

 had several severe conflicts in the 

 act of destroying them, by feeling 

 the effects of their torments on his 

 face and hands: sometimes he killed 

 them before eating, but when very 



• The French prisoners of war were at this time maintained at the expense of 

 their own nation, and were each allowed tiie following daily ration :— Twenty-six 

 ounces of bread, half a pound of greens, nvo ounces of butter, or six ounces of cheese. 



