lai PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1777. 



all ran out. With this however they rubbed her throat and jaws, and continued 

 the trial to make her swallow, rubbing her throat with the water that ran out of 

 her mouth for 3 mornings together. On the 3d morning, during this operation, 

 she cried, " give me more water;" when all that remained of the bottle was given 

 her, which she swallowed with ease. These were the only words she spoke for 

 almost a year, and she continued to mutter some more for 12 or 14 days, after 

 which she did not speak, and rejected, as formerly, all sorts of nourishment and 

 drink, till July 1765, when a sister of hers thought, by some signs she made, 

 that she wanted her jaws opened; which her father effected by putting the handle 

 of a horn-spoon between her teeth. She said then intelligibly, " give me a 

 drink;" and drank at one draught about a pint of water. Her father then asked 

 her, " why she would not make some signs, though she could not speak, when 

 she wanted a drink?" She answered, " why should she when she had no desire?" 

 At this period they kept the jaws asunder with a bit of wood, imagining she got 

 her speech by her jaws being opened, and continued them thus wedged about 20 

 days, though in the first 4 or 5 days she had wholly lost the power of utterance. 

 At last they removed the wedge, as it made her lips sore. At this time she was 

 sensible of every thing done or said about her; and when her eye-lids were 

 opened for her, she knew every body; and when the neighbours in their visits 

 lamented her condition, they could observe a tear stand in her eye. 



In some of the attempts to open her jaws, 2 of the under fore- teeth were 

 forced out; by which opening they often put some thin nourishing drink into 

 her mouth, but without effect, for it always returned by the corners; and about 

 a twelvemonth before (1766) they thought of thrusting a little dough of oatmeal 

 through this gap of the teeth, which she would retain a few seconds, and then 

 return with something like a straining to vomit, without one particle going down ; 

 nor had the family been sensible of any appearance like that of swallowing, for 

 the last 4 years, excepting the small draught of Brea-mar water and the English 

 pint of common water; and for the last 3 years she had not had any evacuation 

 by stool or urine, except that, once or twice a week, she had passed a few drops 

 of urine, but little as it was it gave her some uneasiness till she voided it: for 

 they knew all her motions, and when they saw her thus uneasy, they carried her 

 to the door of the house, where she made these few drops. Nor had they, in 

 all these 3 years, ever discovered the smallest wetting in her bed; in proof of 

 which, notwithstanding her being so long bed-ridden, there had never been the 

 least excoriation, though she never attempted to turn herself, or made any mo- 

 tion with hand, head, or foot, but lay like a log of wood. Her pulse, which 

 with some difficulty Dr. M. felt, was distinct and regular, slow, and to the ex- 

 tremest degree small. Her countenance was clear and pretty fresh, her features 

 not disfigured nor sunk; her skin felt natural both as to touch and warmth; and 



