322 PATHOLOGY. 
deHill. Puellse German. Ufpergenfis in Chron. Lentulus 
in Hill. Admir. Apol. Berius, lib. de Vini Nutritione. 
Bozius, lib. xi. c. 4.. de (ignis Eccl. Fulgorius, lib. i. c.6. 
Lepaeus, lib. ix. Hid. Scot. Fovorinus apud Gellium, 
lib. xvi. c. 3. and efpecially Licetus, who wrote a particu¬ 
lar tra£l to folve the phenomena of this prodigy. 
“ But, further to fatisty thefe incredulous perfons, it is 
affirmed that fome of thefe abftineuts have been watched 
By the mod wakeful eyes and jealous ears, to detedl their 
fraud, if guilty of any; as was that maid that refufed all 
food, except only water, for three years, by Bucoldianus, 
with whom (he abode for twelve days, at the command 
of Ferdinand the emperor; fo that Apollo.nia Schreje- 
rana was taken by the fenate of Bern, and put into the 
hofpitai of that town, and there watched till they were 
fatisfied of the truth of her total abllinence.” 
Mod of thefe cafes are certainly too unnatural to at¬ 
tempt to refute, however gravely they may have been af- 
ferted. Ufelefs, therefore, as the talk would be to dis¬ 
prove what nobody would believe, as well as to combat 
with arguments the exidence of what has been faid to be 
feen, believed, and fworn to, it would be equally unjud 
to doubt the authenticity of the whole. The cafe which 
the author himfelf has related, bears drong tedimony of 
the poffibility of the human body fubfiding under priva¬ 
tions of food for a number of days, if we do not give 
credit for the full time he has reprelented. This ab- 
ftinent, he fays, “is one Martha Taylor, a young damfel 
born of mean parentage, inhabiting not far from Bake- 
well in Derbylhire ; who, receiving a blow on the back 
from a miller, became a prifoner to her bed for feverai 
days; which being expired, (he obtained fome enlarge¬ 
ment for a time, but by increafing didempers was quickly 
remanded to her bed-prifon again ; where continuing fome 
time, (lie found, at lad, a defeat in her gula, and 
quickly after a dejeftion of appetite ; fo that, about the 
zzd of December, anno 1667, die began to abdain from 
all folid food, and fo hath continued, (except fomething 
fo fmall, at the feldom ebbings of her didemper, as is 
altogether inconfiderable,) till within a fortnight before 
the date hereof, which amounts to thirteen months and 
upwards ; as alfo from all other forts, both of meats and 
drinks, except now and then a few drops of the fyrup 
of dewed prunes, water, and fugar, or the juice of a 
roaded raifin, &c. but thefe repads are ufed fo feldom 
and in fuch very fmall quantities,as are prodigioufly infuf- 
hcient for fudenation: die evacuates nothing by urine 
or dool; die fpits not, that I can hear of, but her lips are 
often dry, for which caufe (he takes water and fugar with 
a feather, or fome other liquids; but the palms of her 
hands are often moid, her countenance frefh and lively, 
her voice clear and audible; in difcourfe die is free ; her 
belly dapped to her back-bone, fo that it may be felt 
through her intedines, whence a great cavity is ad¬ 
mitted from the cartilago enfiformis to the navel; and, 
though her upper parts be lefs emaciated, (though much 
too,) yet her lower parts are very languid, and unapt for 
motion, and the (kin thereof defiled with a dry pruriginous 
fcurf, for which, of late, they have wadied them with 
milk ; die deeps fo fparingly, that once die continued 
five W'eeks waking. Led lhe diould prove a cheat, (he 
hath been diligently watched by phyficians, furgeons, and 
other perfons, (for at lead a fortnight together,) by the 
appointment of the noble earl of Devonfhire, as is al- 
' ready publidied by Mr. Robins, B. of D. that is, ballad 
maker of Derby; whofe ballad, they fay, doth much 
excel his book. Likewife feverai other perfons, at other 
times, have been pleafed to vyatch fortheirown fatisfaftion, 
who, detefting no fraud, have given the account above 
mentioned.” 
It was obferved by Dr. Henderfon, from Magn. Gabr. 
Block, that all examples of extraordinary fading have 
been confined to the female fex. This is another confirm¬ 
ation of the remark. Men, however, under circumdances 
,of neceffity, have been enabled to endure fevere privations, 
even under confiderable bodily exertions. The crew ■of 
Bligh, and thehidory of many other navigators, give full 
tedimony of the powers that exid in mankind when their 
natural fupport has been materially reduced, and alfo 
totally taken away. The following particulars are col¬ 
lected from a note in Dr. Good’s Nofology, to which we 
have been already fo much indebted. 
Four men were preferved in a mine, from which, in eon- 
fequence of an accident, they were incapable of being ex¬ 
tricated for twenty-four days, without other food than 
water. Phil. Trunf. 1684.—A boy, fifteen years of age, 
faid to have lived three years without eating or drinking, 
with fever occafionally ; after this period he recovered 
tolerable health, excepting the ufe of one of his limbs, 
but even then took very little food. Id. 1720. by Patrick 
Blair.—A man, faid to have lived eighteen years on water, 
with occafionally a little clarified u'hey ; and locked up 
for twenty days in clofe confinement, with wateralone, to 
prove whether there were any impofition; meagre, and flip- 
pofed to have no evacuations; but in good health, and pur- 
fued hulbandry. Id. 1742.—A woman, from epileptic fits 
when a girl of fifteen, took to her bed, loll her appetite, 
and was attacked with lock-jaw, which, with a few (liort 
intervals, continued for four years : was on two or three 
occafions induced to take a little water, and her mouth was 
at times moillened with wetted linen through a cavity in 
her teeth, from two of them having been broken in an at¬ 
tempt to force the mouth open; but fwallowed nothing 
elfe. After this period, began gradually to recover front 
the tetanus, but had no defire for food ; and twelve years 
from the attack, when able to walk upright, took no 
more food than fufficie.nt for an infant of two years of age. 
Had no egefta, but when ingella, which were propor¬ 
tioned to each other, but fometimes a dewy foftnefs on 
her (kin. Dr. ^Mackenzie in Phil. TranJ'. vol. lxvii. 1777. 
This cafe is authenticated by numerous witnelfes of 
high refpeftability, and is entitled to peculiar attention. 
—Cafe of a woman, who loll all defire of taking food by 
a fall from her horfe into water during her firll menltrua- 
tion at the age ofeighteen : for fifty years fcarcely ever took 
folids, her chief food being whey in the fummer, and 
milk, milk and water, or pure water, in the winter : had 
frequent retchings, which were cured by fmoaking to¬ 
bacco : for the fpace of fixteen years had only one (lool 
annually, in the month of March, refembling a globulet 
of (heep-dung: menfhuation never recurred, but occafional 
vomitings of blood. Edin. Med. EJf. vol. vi. 
3. Limofis pica, appetite for improper and indigeftible 
fubltances. We have two varieties of this fpecies. 
a. L. infulfa, which arifes from want of talle or difcri- 
mination, as in infants and idiots. 
/ 3 . L. perverfa. This arifes from corrupted fade or in¬ 
dulgence. It is often founded on the ablurd notion that 
eating chalk, acids, See. will produce a fair (kin. This 
variety anfwers to the malacia, fiaAaxia, of the Greek 
authors. When ariling from thefe caufes, chaftifement 
or advice can only be had recourfe to, and medical treat¬ 
ment is out of the queltion. It is to be doubted, how¬ 
ever, whether mere mental impreffion ever induces this 
complaint. It is more reafonable to fuppofe that the 
morbid (late of the (lomach is the caufe ; and, in fail, we 
fcarcely ever meet with a cafe of pica in which the galtric 
fecretion is not much altered. Looking to more remote 
caufes, uterine diforder appears often to influence the 
nervous fyftem in the firll inliance, and the (lomach fecon- 
darily. In the early ltages of pregnancy, and in chloro¬ 
tic lubjeits, the difeafe is moll generally found; and 
hence fome writers have fuppofed uterine irritation to be 
the foie caufe of pica. But this is certainly not the cafe j 
for we fometimes meet with the complaint in boys; and 
in the Well-India illands the negroes are often (ubjeft 
to it. It is rendered remarkable in the latter inltance by 
dirt being the (ubftance taken. It feems that regular ha¬ 
bits of diet have frequently cured the negroes of this 
dirt-eating, without the aid of medicine. (Sec Bryan 
4 Edwards’s 
