by which hysteria exhibits
itself, for the astonishment of the credulous and uneducated portion of
the public, and--alas, that it should have to be said,--for the
delectation of an occasional weak-minded and ignorant physician, the
assumption of the ability to live without food may be assigned a
prominent place. I am not aware that this power has been claimed in its
fullest development for the male of the human species. When he is
deprived of food he dies in a few days, more or less, according to his
physical condition as regards adipose tissue and strength of
constitution; but if a weak emaciated girl asserts that she is able to
exist for years without eating, there are at once certificates and
letters from clergymen, professors, and even physicians, in support of
the truth of her story. The element of impossibility goes for nothing
against the bare word of such a woman, and her statements are accepted
with a degree of confidence which is lamentable to witness in this era
of the world's progress.

The class of deceptions occasionally induced by hysteria, and embracing
these "fasting girls," has been known for many years, though it is only
in comparatively recent times that the instances have been taken at
their proper value. Goerres[1] gives a number of examples occurring among
male and female saints and other holy persons, in which partial or total
abstinence from food was said to have existed for long periods.

Thus Liduine of Schiedam fell ill in 1395, and remained in that state
till her death, thirty-three years subsequently. During the first
nineteen years she ate every day nothing but a little piece of apple the
size of a holy wafer, and drank a little water and a swallow of beer, or
sometimes a little sweet milk. Subsequently, being unable to digest beer
and milk, she restricted herself to a little wine and water, and still
later she was obliged to confine herself to water alone, which served
her both as food and drink. But after nineteen years she took nothing
whatever, according to her own statement made to some friars in 1422,
she averring that for eight years nothing in the way of nourishment had
passed her lips, and that for twenty years she had seen neither the sun
nor the moon, nor had touched the earth with her feet.

Saint Joseph of Copertino remained for five years without eating bread,
and ten years without drinking wine, contenting himself with dried
fruits, which he mixed with various bitter herb