As we approach more modern
times the detection is more frequent. Sarah Jacobs, the Welsh
fasting girl who attained such celebrity among the laity, was
taken to Guy's Hospital on December 9, 1869, and after being
watched by eight experienced nurses for eight days she died of
starvation. A postmortem examination of Anna Garbero of Racconis,
in Piedmont, who died on May 19, 1828, after having endured a
supposed fast of two years, eight months, and eleven days,
revealed remarkable intestinal changes. The serous membranes were
all callous and thickened, and the canal of the sigmoid flexure
was totally obliterated. The mucous membranes were all soft and
friable, and presented the appearance of incipient gangrene.
Modern Cases.--Turning now to modern literature, we have cases of
marvelous abstinence well substantiated by authoritative
evidence. Dickson describes a man of sixty-two, suffering from
monomania, who refused food for four months, but made a
successful recovery. Richardson mentions a case, happening in
1848, of a man of thirty-three who voluntarily fasted for
fifty-five days. His reason for fasting, which it was impossible
to combat, was that he had no gastric juice and that it was
utterly useless for him to take any nutrition, as he had no means
of digesting it.
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