hs absolute
abstinence, it is sufficient to reply that when to our knowledge, she
was completely deprived of food, the girl died! The parents most
persistently impressed upon every private as well as official visitor,
both before and during the last fatal watching, that the girl did not
take food; that she could not swallow; that whenever food was mentioned
to her she became as it were, excited; that when it was offered to her
she would have a fit, or the offer would make her ill. The sworn
testimony of the vicar, the Rev. Wm. Thomas, Sister Clinch, Ann Jones,
and the other nurses, is sufficiently confirmative on this point.
Furthermore, the parents went so far as to expressly forbid the mere
mention of food in the girl's presence."

Towards the end of October, 1867, the case had attracted so much
attention that the inhabitants in the neighborhood first began visiting
the marvellous little girl.

"In the beginning of November of the same year, the Rev. Evan Jones,
B.D., the vicar of the parish, was sent for by the parents to visit
Sarah Jacob. He was at once--by the mother--told of the girl's wonderful
fasting powers; it was admitted she took water occasionally. He was also
informed of the extraordinary perversion of her natural functions (the
suppression of urine and faecal evacuations.) He found her lying on her
back in bed, which was covered with books. There was nothing then
remarkable about her dress. The girl looked weak and delicate, though
not pale, and answered only in monosyllables. 'The mother said her child
was very anxious about the state of her soul, that it had such an effect
upon her mind that she could not sleep.' I asked her myself if she had a
desire to become a member of the Church of England? She said, 'Yes!' She
continued to express that wish until July, 1869. At this time the
reverend gentleman did not believe in the statements relative to the
girl's abstinence. 'Every time,' he says, 'that I had a conversation
with her up to the end of 1868, the parents both persisted that she
lived without food, and continued their statements in January and
February, 1869. I remonstrated with them and dwelt upon the apparent
impossibility of the thing. They still persisted that it was a fact.'

"Even as late as September, 1869, the vicar reiterated his ministerial
remonstrances. When, in the beginning of the spring of 1869, he observed
the fantastical changes the parents made in the girl's daily attire, he
to