248 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1809. 



woman, wlio saiil it was a charity 

 which the poor boy's case demand- 

 ed: she now, with unremitting care 

 and attention, applied herself to the 

 daily dressing of the wounds, with 

 those detergent applications which 

 she alone had procured for the pur- 

 pose. It was not until the warm 

 months of August and September 

 that this disagreeable engagement 

 appeared to affect her, when she 

 found it impossible to divest herself 

 of the idea tliat the offensive mat- 

 ter which issued from the wounds 

 was present to her organs of taste 

 and smell ; which, from the sym- 

 pathy existing between the stomach 

 and those parts, made her aversion 

 to take food become still greater, 

 and for several days she was ob- 

 served to be incapable of support- 

 ing herself in the presence of any 

 thing that was offered her in the 

 form of food. In the month of 

 October, the boy fell a sacrifice to 

 his misfortunes; yet the poor wo- 

 man still continued (though releas- 

 ed from her unpleasant office) to 

 exist until the 24<th of February 

 1807, only taking one penny-loaf, 

 with tea, without either cream or 

 sugar, which trifling allowance of 

 bread generally served her fourteen 

 days: she then (February S-tth) de- 

 clined taking any kindof solid food 

 whatever, her only beverage be- 

 coming that of water and tea, which 

 she generally took upon feeling any 

 nausea at her stomach. After this 

 time she had regular discharges, by 

 vomit, every twenty days, of yel- 

 low water from the stomach which 

 appeared to consist of ^he common 

 secretion (gastric juice) of the sto- 

 mach, intermixed with a small pro- 

 portion of bile. From the woman's 

 testimony being always discredited, 



she did not draw the attention, of 

 any of the faculty until she had liv- 

 ed fourteen months without food, 

 when several surgeons wished to 

 have her removed to a neighbour's 

 bouse to be watched, which she 

 without hesitation consented to, 

 that they may be satisfied of her 

 real case. 



After this change, proper per- 

 sons were appointed to watch her 

 day and night ; besides three sur- 

 geons regularlj' visited her two or 

 three times a day, during which 

 time she did not even drink the 

 smallest quantity of water. Wash- 

 ing her mouth with water was, and 

 is, the only thing she continues to 

 do. She voids about four ounces 

 of urine every six days, but has 

 no other evacuation whatever, nor 

 has she had any these six months, 

 which leaves us no doubt to believe 

 that she must live by absorption, as 

 the greater part of all her muscles 

 and soft parts are already removed 

 by that process; though it is a 

 known law of nature, that when one 

 class of absorbent vessels (the lac- 

 teals) are deprived, by accident or 

 disease, of their regular supplies of 

 chyle, which is a milky production 

 from the food, the other class (lym- 

 phatics), which are distributed all 

 over the body, is called into action, 

 to remove and convert (by means 

 of their glands) such a quantity of 

 the soft parts of the body as is re- 

 quired to supply and keep up the 

 regular quantity of blood in the 

 system. This theory is admitted to 

 be established on such a scientific 

 basis, by the late Mr. Hunter, that 

 to deny its truth and validity, would 

 betray a total ignorance of the 

 structure and economy of the hu- 

 man frame. Then, according to 



this 



