Christina Marshall, a girl of fourteen, went fifteen and one-half months without taking solid nourishment. She slept very little, seldom spoke, but occasionally asked the time of day. She took sweets and water, with beef tea at intervals, and occasionally a small piece of orange. She died April 18, 1882, after having been confined to her bed for a long while.
King, a surgeon, U.S.A., gives an account of the deprivation of a squad of cavalry numbering 40. While scouting for Indians on the plains they went for eighty-six hours without water; when relieved their mouths and throats were so dry that even brown sugar would not dissolve on their tongues. Many were delirious, and all had drawn fresh blood from their horses. Despite repeated vomiting, some drank their own urine. They were nearly all suffering from overpowering dyspnea, two were dead, and two were missing. The suffering was increased by the acrid atmosphere of the dry plains; the slightest exercise in this climate provoked a thirst. MacLoughlin, the surgeon in charge of the S.S. City of Chester, speaks of a young stowaway found by the stevedores in an insensible condition after a voyage of eleven days. The man was brought on deck and revived sufficiently to be sent to St.
Vincent's Hospital, N.Y., about one and one-half hours after discovery, in an extremely emaciated, cold, and nearly pulseless condition. He gave his name as John Donnelly, aged twenty, of Dumbarton, Scotland. On the whole voyage he had nothing to eat or drink. He had found some salt, of which he ate two handfuls, and he had in his pocket a small flask, empty. Into this flask he voided his urine, and afterward drank it. Until the second day he was intensely hungry, but after that time was consumed by a burning thirst; he shouted four or five hours every day, hoping that he might be heard. After this he became insensible and remembered nothing until he awakened in the hospital where, under careful treatment, he finally recovered.
Fodere mentions some workmen who were buried alive fourteen days in a cold, damp cavern under a ruin, and yet all lived. There is a modern instance of a person being buried thirty-two days beneath snow, without food. The Lancet notes that a pig fell off Dover Cliff and was picked up alive one hundred and sixty days after, having been partially imbedded in debris. It was so surrounded by the chalk of the cliff that little motion was possible, and warmth was secured by the enclosing material. This animal had therefore lived on its own fat during the entire period.
Among the modern exhibitionists may be mentioned Merlatti, the fasting Italian, and Succi, both of whom fasted in Paris;Alexander Jacques, who fasted fifty days; and the American, Dr.
Tanner, who achieved great notoriety by a fast of forty days, during which time he exhibited progressive emaciation. Merlatti, who fasted in Paris in 1886, lost 22 pounds in a month; during his fast of fifty days he drank only pure filtered water. Prior to the fast his farewell meal consisted of a whole fat goose, including the bones, two pounds of roast beef, vegetables for two, and a plate of walnuts, the latter eaten whole. Alexander Jacques fasted fifty days and Succi fasted forty days. Jacques lost 28 pounds and 4 ounces (from 142 pounds, 8 ounces to 114pounds, 4 ounces), while Succi's loss was 34 pounds and 3 ounces.
Succi diminished in height from 65 3/4 to 64 1/2 inches, while Jacques increased from 64 1/2 to 65 1/2 inches. Jacques smoked cigarettes incessantly, using 700 in the fifty days, although, by professional advice, he stopped the habit on the forty-second day. Three or four times a day he took a powder made of herbs to which he naturally attributed his power of prolonging life without food. Succi remained in a room in which he kept the temperature at a very high point. In speaking of Succi's latest feat a recent report says: "It has come to light in his latest attempt to go for fifty days without food that he privately regaled himself on soup, beefsteak, chocolate, and eggs. It was also discovered that one of the 'committee,' who were supposed to watch and see that the experiment was conducted in a bona fide manner, 'stood in' with the faster and helped him deceive the others. The result of the Vienna experiment is bound to cast suspicion on all previous fasting accomplishments of Signor Succi, if not upon those of his predecessors."Although all these modern fasters have been accused of being jugglers and deceivers, throughout their fasts they showed constant decrease in weight, and inspection by visitors was welcomed at all times. They invariably invited medical attention, and some were under the closest surveillance; although we may not implicitly believe that the fasts were in every respect bona fide, yet we must acknowledge that these men displayed great endurance in their apparent indifference for food, the deprivation of which in a normal individual for one day only causes intense suffering.
Anomalies of Temperature.--In reviewing the reports of the highest recorded temperatures of the human body, it must be remembered that no matter how good the evidence or how authentic the reference there is always chance for malingering. It is possible to send the index of an ordinary thermometer up to the top in ten or fifteen seconds by rubbing it between the slightly moistened thumb and the finger, exerting considerable pressure at the time. There are several other means of artificially producing enormous temperatures with little risk of detection, and as the sensitiveness of the thermometer becomes greater the easier is the deception.