119 
PATHOLOG Y. 
caufe of thirft, was prefent, excepting the Jail, almoft with¬ 
out conftitutional difturbance. 
The heft treatment appears to be to evacuate the bowels, 
and the ufeof mineral acids. Of courfe, when the difeale 
is traceable, and we have little doubt that it is fo in all, 
to exceflive depletion by fweat, urine, &c. to nervous de¬ 
rangement, inflammation of the ftomach, or any other 
difeafed flate, the correflion of that ftate demands our 
firft confideration. For an allonifhing cafe, in which two 
hundred pints of wine, and the fame of water, were drunk 
daily, fee the Eph. Nat. Cur. cent. vii. and for another, 
in which eighty tnealures of liquid were taken-in daily, 
fee Binninger in the Adi. Helvet. vii. p. 16. 
z. Dipfolis expers, or conftant want of thirft. Cullen 
was of opinion, that this always indicated an aftedlion of 
the fenforium commune. Sauvages, however, relates two 
cafes of patients in whom it formed an original difeafe: 
the one a learned and excellent member of the academy 
of Touloufe, who never thirfted, and pafi'ed whole months 
without drinking inlhehotteft part of the furnmer ; the 
other a woman, who for forty days abftained altogether 
from drinking, not having had the fmalleft defire, and 
who was neverthelefs of a warm and irafcible tempera¬ 
ment. See another cafe that continued for fome years, 
in theEphem. Nat. Cur. cent. v. and vi. 
Genus V. Limofis, [from hunger.] Morbid Ap¬ 
petite; 5 . e. exceflive or depraved. The following are the 
feven fpecies, with their varieties. 
i. Limofis avens, infatiable craving for food. We 
have three varieties of this fpecies. 
a. L. fyncoptica, from a feeling of faintnefs and inani¬ 
tion. This diforder, we believe, is feldom idiopathic: 
it more frequently depends on very general gaftric difturb¬ 
ance, and is certainly connected with deficient adlion of 
the abforbents. In the Phil. Tranf. vol. xliii. 1745, > s a 
Angular cafe related by Dr. Mortimer, of a boy twelve 
years old, who, from a feeling of inanition, had fo ftrong 
a craving, that he would gnaw his own flefh when not 
fupplied with food. When awake, he wasconftantly de¬ 
vouring, though whatever he fwallowed was foon after¬ 
wards reje&ed. The food given him confided of bread, 
meat, beer, milk, water, butter, cheefe, fugar, treacle, 
puddings, pies, fruits, broth, potatoes; and of thefe he 
fwallowed in fix fucceflive days 384^. 2 oz. avoirdupois, 
being 64lbs. a-day on an average. The difeafe conti¬ 
nued for a-year. 
It is occafionally produced by worms. See a curious 
cafe of Dr. Burroughs, Phil. Tranf. xxii. 1700 ; in which 
the patient from this aftedlion was rendered capable of 
devouring an ordinary leg of mutton at a meal for feve- 
ral days .together, and fed greedily alfo on fow-thiftles 
and other coarfe plants. Voracity is, however, by no 
means an unfrequent fymptom in worms. 
| 3 . L. lielluonum, from habitual indulgence in large and 
frequent meals. Habit, induced by idlenefs, is undoubt¬ 
edly the moft frequent caufe of gluttony. The unoccu¬ 
pied perfon perpetually eats, unlefs difeafe impedes this 
fenfual gratification. Sometimes, however, it feems that 
an idiolyncracy of a peculiar nature difpofes to exceflive 
appetite. In a cafe we (hall prefently quote, not only 
the father, but nine fons, were remarkable for the vora- 
cioufnefs of their appetite. This aftedlion can fcarcely 
be called a difeafe; for, without entering into any dif- 
cuflion on the caufe of hunger, we may remark that that 
fenfation evidently depends on fome adlionof the ftomach. 
Whatever that may be, if it is increafed without pain or 
derangement of the digeftive or any other function, it is 
evident that we have no more reafon for calling this a 
difeafe than the great ftrength which we remark in fome 
men, and which evidently depends on exceflive power of 
the mufcles. Hence it appears how abfurd thofe attempts 
muft be which have been made to remove this idiofyn- 
cracy by acids, opium, &c. in a word by any treatment 
Vo L. XIX. No. 1291. 
but the moral. The unfortunate individuals afflicted 
with this propenfity arefeldom fo robuftas thofe of more 
moderate appetite ; and they feldom, according to the tefi- 
timony of M. Perc} - , live beyond the age of forty years. 
In moft of the cafes on record, the flcin appears to be the 
part whence the furplus of provifion is thrown off; the 
itools and urine being commonly in the ordinary propor¬ 
tion. 
It would be improper, in a work of this fort, to pafs 
over the moft remarkable cafe we are acquainted with ; 
although, from its frequent quotation, it is probably 
known to.moft of our medical readers. 
The cafe is that of,the famous Turare, who was known 
to all Paris, and who died at Verfailles about the year 
1800, at the age of twenty-fix years. M. le Baron Percy, 
who favv Tarare, and who made fome inveftigations re- 
fpedling this Angular perfonage, has given us the hiftory 
of him, in a very curious Memoir on Polyphagy. At 
feventeen years of age, Tarare weighed only one hundred 
pounds ; and was already able to eat, in twenty-four 
hours, a quarter of a bullock of that weight. Having 
left his parents when very young, (he was of the environs 
of Lyons,) fometimes begging, fometimes Healing, to 
obtain fubfiftence, he attached himfelf to one of the 
mountebank (hows on the boulevards. One time, on the 
ftage, he defied the public to fatiate him; and ate in a 
few minutes a pannier-full of apples, furniftied by one of 
the fpeftators; he fwallowed flints, corks, and all that 
was prelented to him. At the commencement of the war 
Tarare entered into the army ; he ferved all the young 
men in eafy circumftances in the company, did all their 
jobs for them, and ate up the rations they left for him. 
Famine neverthelefs gained upon him ; he fell fick, and 
was taken to the military hofpital at Soultz. On the day 
of his entry he received a quadruple allowance : he de¬ 
voured the food refufed by the other patients, and the 
fcraps about the kitchen ; but his hunger could not thus 
be appeafed. He got into the apothecary’s room, and 
there ate the poultices, and every thing he could feize. 
“ Let a perfon imagine,”fays M. Percy, “all that domeftic 
and wild animals, the moft filthy and ravenous, are capa¬ 
ble of devouring; and they may form fome idea of the 
appetite, as well as the wants, of Tarare.” He would eat 
dogs and cats. One day, in the prefence of the chief 
phyfician of the army, Dr. Lorence, he feized by the neck 
and paws a large living car, tore open its belly with his 
teeth, fucked its blood, and devoured it, leaving no part 
of it but the bare fkeleton ; half an hour afterwards he 
threw up the hairs of the cat, juft as birds of prey and 
other carnivorous animals do. Tarare liked the fleflt of 
ferpents ; he managed them familiarly, and ate alive the 
largeft fnakes, without leaving any part of them. He 
fwallowed a large eel alive, without chewing it ; but we 
thought we perceived him crulh its head between his 
teeth. He ate, in a few inftants, the dinner prepared for 
fifteen German labourers: this repaft was ccmpofed of 
four bowls of curdled milk, and two enormous hard pud¬ 
dings. After this, the belly of Tarare, commonly lank 
and wrinkled, was diftended like a- balloon : he went 
away, and flept until the next day, and was not incom¬ 
moded by it. M. Comville, the furgeon-major of the 
hofpital where Tarare then was, made him fwallow a 
wmoden cafe, enclofing a ftieet of white paper : he voided 
it the following day by the anus, and the paper was un¬ 
injured. The general-in-chief had him brought before 
him ; and, after having devoured in his prefence nearly 
thirty pounds of raw liver and lights, Tarare again 
fwallowed the wooden cafe, in which was placed a letter 
to a French officer, who was a prifoner to the enemy. 
Tarare fet out, was taken, flogged, imprifoned ; voided 
the wooden cafe, which he had retained thirty hours, and 
had the addrefs to fwallow it again, to conceal the know¬ 
ledge of its contents from the enemy. 
They tried to cure him of this infatiable hunger, by the 
I i ufe 
