--PHAEDRUS.

NEW YORK
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
182 FIFTH AVENUE
1879

COPYRIGHT BY
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS.
1879.

Transcriber's Note:

Greek text has been transliterated and is shown between {braces}.
The oe ligature is shown as [oe].

PREFACE.

In issuing this little book I have been actuated by a desire to do
something towards the removal of a lamentable degree of popular
ignorance.

It seems that no proposition that can be made is so absurd or impossible
but that many people, ordinarily regarded as intelligent, will be found
to accept it and to aid in its propagation. And hence, when it is
asserted that a young lady has lived for fourteen years without food of
any kind, hundreds and thousands of persons throughout the length and
breadth of a civilized land at once yield their belief to the monstrous
declaration.

I have confined my remarks entirely to the question of abstinence from
food. The other supernatural gifts, the possession of which is claimed,
would, if considered, have extended the limits of this little volume
beyond the bounds which were deemed expedient. At some future time I may
be tempted to discuss them. In the meantime it is well to call to mind
that a proposition (_see_ Appendix) which I made solely in the interest
of truth was disregarded, ostensibly with the desire to avoid publicity,
when in fact the daily press had for weeks been filled with reports in
detail, furnished by the friends of the young lady in question, of the
marvellous powers she was said to possess.

A portion of this essay, which bore upon the matter discussed, has been
taken from another volume by the author, published several years ago,
and now out of print.

WILLIAM A. HAMMOND.

43 WEST 54TH STREET,
MARCH _1st, 1879_.

CONTENTS

PAGE

I ABSTINENCE IN THE MIDDLE AGES 1

II ABSTINENCE IN MODERN TIMES 6

III ABSTINENCE FROM FOOD, WITH STIGMATIZATION 31

IV THE BROOKLYN CASE 48

V THE PHYSIOLOGY AND PATHOLOGY OF INANITION 59

FASTING GIRLS.

I.

ABSTINENCE IN THE MIDDLE AGES.

Among the many remarkable manifestations