50 PHYSIOLOGY AND HEALTH. 



ment was calmed and the distress alleviated, the sufferer was 

 persuaded to eat, and ate with the usual freedom, and digested 

 with the usual ease and comfort. 



96. Some extreme instances of this are on record. "One 

 is published in the Edinburgh Medical Essays for 1720, of a 

 young lady about sixteen years of age, who, in consequence 

 of the sudden death of an indulgent father, was thrown into a 

 state of tetanus, or rigidity of all the muscles of the body, 

 and especially those of swallowing, accompanied with a total 

 loss of desire for food, as well as incapacity for swallowing it, 

 for two long and successive periods of time in the first in- 

 stance for thirty-four, and in the second for fifty-four days; 

 during all which time of her first and second fastings, she 

 declared she had no sense of hunger or thirst, and when they 

 were over she had not lost much flesh." * 



97. The celebrated Miss Ann Moore, of Tutbury, Eng- 

 land, lived for some years on so little food, that she was sup- 

 posed to live entirely without it ; and she even pretended 

 that she was able to live without any food whatever. A 

 woman, in consequence of lockjaw, swallowed nothing but 

 a very little cold water for four years; and for twelve .years 

 afterward took no more food than is sufficient for a child 

 two years old. 



CHAPTER XL 



Great Eaters. Causes of enormous Appetite and Eating. Stom- 

 ach distended by Over-eating. Hunger recurs when Blood wants 

 more Chyle. Intervals between Meals vary with Circumstances 

 Disturbance of the usual Hours of Eating disturbs Digestion 

 Intervals of Meals. 



98. ON the contrary, there are instances of persons who 

 from disease or perverse habit, have acquired an extraordi- 



* Good's Nosology, p. 1G, note. 



