214 OF FOOD AND HUNGER. 



other sources rendered them of little value. But when at length 

 his comrades stood in need of them themselves, he was nearly 

 famished, fell ill, and was admitted into the hupital ambulant at 

 Sultzer. He there ate not only a quadruple allowance, the broken 

 food of the other patients, and the waste of the kitchen, but 

 would swallow the poultices und any thing else that came in his 

 wav. He devoured so many dogs and cats alive that they fled 

 at the sight of him. Large snakes he despatched with the greatest 

 facility, and once gobbled up in a few moments all the dinner 

 that was provided for fifteen German labourers, viz. four bowls 

 of curd and two enormous dishes of dough boiled in water with 

 salt and fat. At another time he disposed of thirty pounds of 

 raw liver and lights in the presence of some general officers, 

 who, finding that he could swallow a large wooden lancet case, 

 took the partitions out, enclosed a letter in it, and made him swal- 

 low it and proceed to the enemy's quarters for the purpose of dis- 

 charging it by stool and delivering the letter to a French colonel 

 who had fallen into the hands of the Prussians. This he con- 

 trived to do, enclosed the answer in it, swallowed it again, 

 made his escape, discharged the case again from his bowels, 

 washed it, and presented it to Beauharnois and the other officers. 

 Having, however, been well drubbed by the enemy, he refused 

 any further secret service and was readmitted into the hospital 

 to be cured of his hunger. Being no longer a novelty, less in- 

 terest was taken in him, and he felt it necessary to have recourse 

 to sheep-folds, poultry-yards, private kitchens, slaughter-houses, 

 and bye places where he had to contend with dogs and wolves 

 for their filthy food. He was detected drinking blood that had 

 been taken from his fellow-patients, and eating bodies in the 

 dead house. The disapjiearance of a young child excited strong 

 suspicions against him, and he was at length chased away and 

 unheard of for four years, at the end of which time he applied at 

 the hospice de Versailles, wasted, no longer voracious, and la- 

 bouring under a purulent diarrhoea, and he soon died, aged 

 twenty-six. The body immediately became a mass of putridity. 



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