56 VORACITY. 



For every example of extraordinary abstinence among females 

 we have a counterpart in voraciousness among males. When the 

 appetite is so great, it is seldom nice; and not only all animals in 

 all states are devoured, but glass, flints, metals, sand, wood, &c. 

 A Frenchman, named Tarare, and described by Drs. Percy and 

 Laurent, in some measure from their own observation n , will form 

 a good contrast to the Scotch girl. When a lad, he once swal- 

 lowed a large basket of apples, after some person had agreed to 

 pay for them ; and at another time a quantity of flints, corks, and 

 similar substances. The colic frequently compelled him to apply 

 at the Hotel Dieu : he was no sooner relieved, however, than he 

 began his tricks again, and once was but just prevented from 

 swallowing the surgeon's watch, with its chain and seals. In 

 1789 he joined the mob, and obtained sufficient food without 

 devouring for money. He was then about seventeen, weighing a 

 hundred pounds, and would eat five-and-twenty pounds of beef 

 a day. When the war broke out he entered into the army, and 

 devoured his comrades' rations, as long as better supplies from 

 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 hopital ambulant at 



unnecessary ; yet the minister and magistrates of Meurs made trial of her for 

 thirteen successive days without detecting her imposture. Over her picture in 

 the Dutch original are these lines : 



Muerae hsec quam cernis decies ter sexq ; peregit 

 Annos, bis septem prorsus non vescitur annis 

 Nee potat, sic sola sedet, sic pallida vitam 

 Ducit, et exigui se oblectat floribus horti. 



Thus rendered in the English translation 



This maide, of Meurs 36 yeares spent 

 14 of which she tooke no nourishment 

 Thus pale, and wan she sits sad and alone 

 A garden 's all shee loves to looke upon. 



An Apologie or Declaration of the Power and Providence of 



God. By George Hakewill. 1630. fol. 



Respecting Anne Moore, see Dr. Henderson's Examination, &c. 

 * Dictionnaire des Sciences Medicates, art. Homophage; where the dissection 

 of another polyphagus is given, whose stomach was found to have been made 

 neither more nor less than a collection of marine stores. See also Percy's Memoire 

 sur If Polyphage, in the Journal de Medecine, Brumaire, An xii. 



