the abstaining from food. See Fast.

Many wonderful stories have been told of extraordi- nary fasting; great numbers of which undoubtedly must be false. Others, however, we have on very good authority, of which some are mentioned under the ar- ticle Abstinence. Another we have in the

Fasting Woman. A full account of this very un- common case is given in the Phil. Transf. Vol. LXVII. Part I. The substance of which follows: The woman, whose name was Janet MacLeod, an inhabitant in the parish of Kincardine in Rossshire, continued healthy till she was 15 years of age, when she had a pretty severe epileptic fit; after this she had an interval of health for four years, and then another epileptic fit which conti- nued a whole day and a night. A few days after- wards she was seized with a fever, which continued with violence several weeks, and from which she did not perfectly recover for some months. At this time she lost the use of her eye-lids; so that she was under a necessity of keeping them open with the fin- gers of one hand, whenever she wanted to look about her. In other respects she continued in pretty good health; only she never had any appearance of menes, but periodically spit up blood in pretty large quanti- ties, and at the same time it flowed from the nose. This discharge continued several years; but at last it ceased: and soon after she had a third epileptic fit, and after that a fever from which she recovered very slowly. Six weeks after the crisis, she stole out of the house unknown to her parents, who were buried in their harvest work, and bound the sheaves of a ridge before she was observed. In the evening she took to her bed, complaining much of her heart (most proba- bly her stomach, according to the phraseology of that country) and her head. From that time she never rose for five years, but was occasionally lifted out of bed. She seldom spoke a word, and took no little food that it seemed scarce sufficient to support a sucking infant. Even this small quantity was taken by compulsion; and at last, about Whitunday 1763, she totally refused every kind of food or drink. Her jaw now became so fast locked, that it was with the greatest difficulty her father was able to open her teeth a little, in order to admit a small quantity of gruel or whey; but of this so much generally run out at the corners of her mouth, that they could not be sensible any had been swallow- ed. About this time they got some water from a no- ted medicinal spring in Brae-Mar, some of which they attempted to make her swallow, but without effect. They continued their trials, however, for three morn- ings; rubbing her throat with the water, which run out at the corners of her mouth. On the third morn- ing during the operation, she cried out, "Give me more water;" and swallowed with ease all that re- mained in the bottle. She spoke no more intelligibly for a year; though she continued to mutter some words, which her parents only understood, for 14 days. She continued to reject all kinds of food and drink till July 1765. At this time her sister thought, by some signs she made, that she wanted her jaws opened; and this being done, not without violence, she called in- telligibly for a drink, and drank with ease about an English pint of water. Her father then asked her why she would not make some signs when she wanted a drink? to which she answered, why should she when she had no desire. It was now supposed that she had regained the faculty of speech; and her jaws were kept open for about three weeks by means of a wedge. But in four or five days she became totally silent, and the wedge was removed because it made her lips sore. She still, however, continued sensible; and when her ey- elids were opened, knew every body, as could be guessed from the signs she made.

By continuing their attempts to force open her jaws, two of the under foreteeth were driven out; and of this opening her parents endeavoured to avail them- selves by putting some thin nourishing drink into her mouth; but without effect, as it always returned by the corners. Sometimes they thought of thrusting a little dough of oatmeal through this gap of the teeth, which she would retain a few seconds, and then return with something like a straining to vomit, without one par- ticle going down. Nor were the family sensible of any thing like swallowing for four years, excepting the small draught of Brae-Mar water and the English pint of common water. For the last three years she had not any evacuation by stool or urine, except that once or twice a week she patted a few drops of urine, about as much, to use the expression of her parents, as would wet the surface of a halfpenny. In this situation she was visited by Dr Mackenzie, who communicated the account of her case to the Royal Society. He found her not at all emaciated; her knees were bent and the hamstrings tight, so that her heels almost touched her buttocks. She slept much, and was very quiet: but when awake, kept a constant whimpering like a new- born weakly infant. She never could remain a mo- ment on her back, but always fell to one side or an- other; and her chin was clapped close to her breast, nor could it by any force be moved backwards.

The doctor paid his first visit in the month of Oc- tober; and five years afterwards, viz. in October 1772, was induced to pay her a second visit, by hearing that she was recovering, and had begun to eat and drink. The account given him was most extraordinary. Her parents one day returning from their country labours (having left their daughter fixed to her bed as usual), were greatly surprised to find her sitting upon her hams, on the side of the house opposite to her bed-place, spin- ning with her mother's distaff. All the food she took at that time was only to crumble a little oat or barley cake in the palm of her hand, as if to feed a chicken. She put little crumbs of this into the gap of her teeth; rolled them about for some time in her mouth; and then sucked out of the palm of her hand a little water, whey, or milk; and this only once or twice a day, and even that by compulsion. She never attempted to speak; her jaws were fast locked, and her eyes shut. On opening her eye-lids, the balls were found to be turned up under the edge of the os frontis; her countenance was ghastly, her complexion pale, and her whole person emaciated. She seemed sensible, and tractable in every thing except in taking food. This she did with the utmost reluctance, and even cried before she yielded. The great change of her looks Dr MacKenzie attributed to her spinning flax on the distaff, which exhausted too much of the saliva; and therefore he recommended to her parents to confine her totally to the spinning of wool. In 1775, she was visited again, and found to be greatly improved in her looks as well as strength; her food was also considerably increased in quantity; though even then she did not take more than would be sufficient to sustain an infant of two years of age.

The following remarkable instances of animals being able to live long without food, are related by Sir William Hamilton in his account of the late earthquakes in Italy, ("Phil. Trans." vol. 73.) "At Soriano (says he), two fattened hogs that had remained buried under a heap of ruins, were taken out alive the 42d day; they were lean and weak, but soon recovered." Again, "At Messina two mules belonging to the Duke de Belviso remained under a heap of ruins, one of them 22 days, and the other 23 days: they would not eat for some days, but drank water plentifully, and are now recovered. There are numberless instances of dogs remaining many days in the same situation; and a hen belonging to the British vice-consul at Messina, that had been closely shut up under the ruins of his house, was taken out the 22d day, and is now recovered; it did not eat for some days, but drank freely; it was emaciated, and showed little signs of life at first. From these instances, and those related before of the hogs at Soriano, and several others of the same kind that have been related to me, but which being less remarkable I omit, one may conclude, that long fasting is always attended with great thirst and total loss of appetite."

An instance of a similar kind, not less remarkable than either of the two preceding, we find in the Gentleman's Magazine for Jan. 1785, communicated by a correspondent, as follows: "During the heavy snow which fell in the night of the 7th of January 1776, a parcel of sheep belonging to Mr John Wolley, of Matlock, in Derbyshire, which were pastured on that part of the East Moor that lies within the manor of Matlock, were covered with the drifted snow: in the course of a day or two all the sheep that were covered with the snow were found again, except two, which were consequently given up as lost; but on the 14th of February following (some time after the break of the snow in the valleys, and 38 days after the fall), as a servant was walking over a large parcel of drifted snow which remained on the declivity of a hill, a dog he had with him discovered one of the two sheep that had been lost, by winding (or scenting) it through a small aperture which the breath of the sheep had made in the snow; the servant thereupon dug away the snow, and released the captive from its prison; it immediately ran to a neighbouring spring, at which it drank for a considerable time, and afterwards rejoined its old companions as though no such accident had befallen it. On inspecting the place where it was found, it appeared to have stood between two large stones which lay parallel with each other at about two feet and an half distance, and probably were the means of protecting it from the great weight of the snow, which in that place lay several yards thick; from the number of stones around it, it did not appear that the sheep had been able to pick up any food during its confinement. Soon afterwards its owner removed it to some low lands; but as it had nearly lost its appetite, it was fed with bread and milk for some time: in about a fortnight after its enlargement it lost its sight and wool; but in a few weeks afterwards they both returned again, and in the course of the following summer it was quite recovered. The remaining sheep was found dead about a week after the discovery of the other."

In the same publication is recorded the death of Suppl. for one Caleb Elliot, a visionary enthusiast, who meant to have fasted 40 days, and actually survived 16 without food, having obstinately refused sustenance of every kind.