VORACITY. 57 



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 and any thing else that came in 

 his way. 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 swallow 

 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 contrived 

 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, he excited less in- 

 terest, and felt it necessary to have recourse to sheepfolds, 

 poultry-yards, private kitchens, slaughter-houses, and by-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 

 disappearance 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 Ver- 

 sailles, wasted, no longer voracious, and labouring under a puru- 

 lent diarrhoea ; and he soon died, aged twenty-six. The body 

 immediately became a mass of putridity. During his life he was 

 always offensive, hot, and in a sweat, especially at intervals. His 

 breath rolled off like steam, and his dejections were constantly 

 very copious, and intolerably foetid. He was of the middle height, 

 thin, and weak. 



All the abdominal viscera were found full of suppurations. 



His stomach was of immense size, and this has usually been the 

 case in persons habitually gluttonous. A polyphagous idiot 

 opened by the same writers displayed an enormous stomach, more 

 resembling that of a horse than of a human being : the intestines 



