There is a possibility that some of these cases of
Hippocrates were instances of pyloric carcinoma or of stenosis of
the pylorus. In the older writings there are instances reported
in which the period of abstinence has varied from a short time to
endurance beyond the bounds of credulity. Hufeland mentions total
abstinence from food for seventeen days, and there is a
contemporary case of abstinence for forty days in a maniac who
subsisted solely on water and tobacco. Bolsot speaks of
abstinence for fourteen months, and Consbruch mentions a girl who
fasted eighteen months. Muller mentions an old man of forty-five
who lived six weeks on cold water. There is an instance of a
person living in a cave twenty-four days without food or drink,
and another of a man who survived five weeks' burial under ruins.
Ramazzini speaks of fasting sixty-six days; Willian, sixty days
(resulting in death); von Wocher, thirty-seven days (associated
with tetanus); Lantana, sixty days; Hobbes, forty days;
Marcardier, six months; Cruikshank, two months; the Ephemerides,
thirteen months; Gerard, sixty-nine days (resulting in death);
and in 1722 there was recorded an instance of abstinence lasting
twenty-five months.
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