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ON THE DIGESTIVE FUNCTION, ETC. 14| 



tasted any thing but water. The fact was wel] known throughout 

 the neighbourhood ; but an imposition having been suspected by several 

 persons who saw him, he had been shut up at times in close confinement 

 for twenty days at a trial, with the most scrupulous care that he should 

 communicate with nothing but water. He uniformly enjoyed good health, 

 and appears to have had ejections, but seldom. 



A multitude of hypotheses have been offered to account for these won- 

 derful anomalies, but none of them do it satisfactorily ; and I should be 

 unworthy of the confidence you repose in me, if I did not ingenuously 

 con^3ss my utter ignorance upon the subject. Water in most cases ap- 

 pears to have been absolutely necessary, yet not in all ; for Hildanus, who, 

 though somewhat imaginative, appears to have been an honest and an able 

 man in the main, assures us, that Eva Flegen, who had fasted for sixteen 

 years when he saw her in 1612, had abstained entirely from liquids as well 

 as solids : and in the case of impacted toads, especially those found in 

 blocks of closely crystallized marble, the moisture they receive must often 

 be very insignificant. 



Perhaps one of the most singular cases, and at the same time one of 

 the best authenticated on record, is that of Janet M'Leod, published in 

 the Philosophical Transactions by Dr. Mackenzie.* She was at this time 

 thirty-three years of age, unmarried, and from the age of fifteen had had 

 various paroxysms of epilepsy, which had considerably shaken her frame, 

 rendered the elevator muscles of the eyelids paralytic, so that she could 

 only see by lifting the lids up, and produced so rigid a locked jaw that her 

 mouth could rarely be forced open by any contrivance. She had lost very 

 nearly her power of speech and deglutition, and, with this, all desire either 

 to eat or drink. Her lower limbs were retracted towards her body ; she 

 was entirely confined to her bed, slept much, and had seldom any other 

 egestions than periodical discharges of blood, apparently from the lungs, 

 which was chiefly thrown out by the nostrils. During a very few intervals of 

 relaxation she was prevailed upon with great difliculty to put a few crumbs 

 of bread, comminuted in the hand, into her mouth, together with a little 

 water sucked from her own hand, and in one or two instances a little gruel; 

 but even at these attempts almost the whole was ejected. On two oc- 

 casions also, after a total abstinence of many months, she made signs of 

 wishing to drink some water, which was immediately procured for her. 

 On the first occasion, the whole seemed to be returned from her mouth ; 

 but she was greatly refreshed by having it rubbed upon her throat. On 

 the second occasion, she drank oflf a pint at once, but could not be either 

 prevailed upon or forced to drink any more, notwithstanding that her 

 father had now fixed a wedge between her teeth, two of which were hereby 

 broken out. With these exceptions, however, she seems to have passed 

 upwards of four years without either liquids or solids of any kind, or even 

 an appearance of swallowing. She lay for the most part like a log of 

 wood, with a pulse scarcely perceptible from feebleness, but distinct and 

 regular : her countenance was clear and pretty fresh ; her features neither 

 disfigured nor sunk ; her bosom round and prominent, and her limbs not 

 emaciated Dr. Mackenzie watched her with occasional visits, for eight 

 or nine years, at the close of which period she seems to have been a little* 

 improved. His narrative is very precisely as well as minutely detailed:> 



* Vol. Ixvii. year 17??, 



