Benjamin Rush speaks of a case mentioned in a letter to St.
George Tucker, from J. A. Stuart, of a man who, after receiving
no benefit from a year's treatment for hemiplegia, resolved to
starve himself to death. He totally abstained from food for sixty
days, living on water and chewing apples, but spitting out the
pulp; at the expiration of this time he died. Eccles relates the
history of a beautiful young woman of sixteen, who upon the death
of a most indulgent father refused food for thirty-four days, and
soon afterward for fifty-four days, losing all her senses but
that of touch.
There is an account of a French adventurer, the Chevalier de
Saint-Lubin, who had a loathing for food and abstained from every
kind of meat and drink for fifty-eight days. Saint-Sauver, at
that time Lieutenant of the Bastille, put a close watch on this
man and certified to the verity of the fast. The European
Magazine in 1783 contained an account of the Calabria earthquake,
at which time a girl of eighteen was buried under ruins for six
days. The edge of a barrel fell on her ankle and partly separated
it, the dust and mortar effectually stopping the hemorrhage. The
foot dropped off and the wound healed without medical assistance,
the girl making a complete recovery.
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