scarcely
perceptible for feebleness, but distinct and regular. Her countenance
was clear and pretty fresh; her features neither disfigured nor sunk;
her bosom round and prominent, and her limbs not emaciated. Dr. McKenzie
watched her, with occasional visits, for eight or nine years, at the
close of which period she seemed to be a little improved."

This account, like that given of Miss Fancher, tells us nothing definite
in regard to the fasting abilities of the young woman. It simply, with
the other, may be accepted as indicating that hysterical women are able
to go for comparatively long periods without food, and that fact we
already knew. It will be observed that it is stated that she "_seemed_"
to go four years without food or drink.

In regard to Miss Fancher, the evidence is a little conflicting. First
we have Dr. Speir reported as saying, in answer to a question as to her
having lived fourteen years without food:

"'Yes, she became my patient in 1864. Her case is a most remarkable
one.'

"'But has she eaten nothing during all these years?'

"'I can safely say she has not.'"

This in the _Herald_.

But about a month afterward we find the following conversation, reported
as taking place between the same physician and another reporter, this
time of the _Sun_:

"'Is it true that she has not partaken of food in all these thirteen
years?'

"'No, I cannot say that she has not; I have not been constantly with her
for thirteen years. She may have taken food in my absence.'"

In which opinion all physiologists will join.

As I have said, hysterical women certainly do exhibit a marked ability
to go without both food and drink. I have had patients abstain from
sometimes one, sometimes the other, and sometimes both, for periods
varying from one day to eleven, and this without much, if any,
suffering, for as soon as the suffering came they did not hesitate to
signify their desire to break their voluntary fasts. Real suffering is a
condition which the hysterical woman avoids with the most assiduous
care.

FOOTNOTES:

[14] Curiosities of Medical Experience. London, 1837, Vol. I., page 269,
article, _Abstinence_.

V.

THE PHYSIOLOGY AND PATHOLOGY OF INANITION.

The opinion that food and drink are necessary to life is so generally
accepted by mankind, that few venture to dispute the dictum of Virchow
relative to Louise Lateau, "Fraud or miracle." But although it is
impossible so far as we know for