Sometimes in the older writings we find records of incredible
abstinence. Jonston speaks of a man in 1460 who, after an
unfortunate matrimonial experience, lived alone for fifteen
years, taking neither food nor drink. Petrus Aponensis cites the
instance of a girl fasting for eight years. According to Jonston,
Hermolus lived forty years on air alone. This same author has
also collected cases of abstinence lasting eleven, twenty-two,
and thirty years and cites Aristotle as an authority in
substantiating his instances of fasting girls.
Wadd, the celebrated authority on corpulence, quotes Pennant in
mentioning a woman in Rosshire who lived one and three-quarters
years without meat or drink. Granger had under observation a
woman by the name of Ann Moore, fifty-eight years of age, who
fasted for two years. Fabricius Hildanus relates of Apollonia
Schreiera that she lived three years without meat or drink. He
also tells of Eva Flegen, who began to fast in 1596, and from
that time on for sixteen years, lived without meat or drink.
According to the Rev. Thos. Steill, Janet Young fasted sixteen
years and partially prolonged her abstinence for fifty years. The
Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, which contains a mention
of the foregoing case, also describes the case of Janet Macleod,
who fasted for four years, showing no signs of emaciation.
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