[247 J 



CHRONICLE. 



1st. 



JANUARY. 



THE following extraordi- 

 nary case of abstinence 

 from food, is extracted from the 

 Monthly Magazine for January of 

 this year. 



Ann Moor, aged 58, a poor wo- 

 man of Tutbury, in the county of 

 Stafford, has lived twenty months 

 without food. However, not being 

 Hike many others) perfectly satis- 

 fied with the common report in the 

 neighbourhood respecting her case, 

 I took an opportunity of visiting 

 her personally, in order to ascer- 

 tain the exact particulars of her 

 case ; when I had, by her own 

 statement, the following account 

 of her miserable condition : — That 

 in the year 1804/ she was attacked 

 with a very severe illness, which, I 

 concluded (from her account) must 

 have been an inflammation of some 

 ofthc viscera of the abdomen. From 

 this shegradually recovered (by the 

 assistance of the surgeon in the 

 place ) , after th Irteen weeks confine- 

 ment. After this she had (the same 

 year),atintervals(lbelievercgular), 

 violent fits, accompaniedwithaspas- 

 modic affection of thestomach. The 

 succeedingyear, 1805,shewasagain 

 ittlatkcd with a second inflamma- 



tion of some part of the abdominal 

 viscera, which was not quite so vio- 

 lent as the former ; which, after she 

 was perfectly recovered from this 

 inflammatory disease, being gra- 

 dual, after eleven weeks confine- 

 ment, she found it had materially 

 mitigated the spasms and fits which 

 she had beenaccustoraed to support 

 the preceding year. But what must 

 have been a still greater aSliciion 

 to her, was, that her appetite and 

 digestive powers of the stomach 

 •were considerably impaired, parti- 

 cularly the latter, so that, from the 

 irritability of ihatorgan everything 

 was rejected that she took, except 

 that mild aliment, tea, rnilk, pud-' 

 dings, or vegetables ; and of these 

 she took such a small proportion, 

 that it was believed, by all her at- 

 tendants, she would soon fall (t vic- 

 tim for the want of that nourish- 

 ment which the system requires to 

 supply the wastes of nature.. In 

 this state she continued until the 

 spring of 1806, when she under- 

 took to superintend the daily dress- 

 ing of a fistula wound of a poor 

 boy's back, from the offensive na- 

 ture of which (and the boy's ina- 

 bility to procure the attendance of 

 a surgeon ) , every one declined lend- 

 ing their assistance, except this poor 



woman, 



