edience to the universal law of nature, she
would die of gradual inanition or exhaustion, which I thought would
sooner or later ensue; but I was mistaken. The case knocks the bottom
out of all existing medical theories, and is, in a word, miraculous.'

"'Did you ever,' asked the reporter, 'make an experiment to satisfy your
professional accuracy in regard to her abstinence?'

"'Several times I have given her emetics on purpose to discover the
truth; but the result always confirmed the statement that she had taken
no food. It sounds strangely, but it is so. I have taken every
precaution against deception, sometimes going into the house at eleven
or twelve o'clock at night, without being announced, but have always
found her the same, and lying in the same position occupied by her for
the entire period of her invalidity. The springs of her bedstead are
actually worn out with the constant pressure. My brethren in the medical
profession at first were inclined to laugh at me, and call me a fool and
spiritualist when I told them of the long abstinence and keen mental
powers of my interesting patient. But such as have been admitted to see
her are convinced. These are Dr. Ormiston, Dr. Elliott and Dr.
Hutchison, some of the best talent in the city, who have seen and
believed.'"

And then the following account is given of the accident from which the
young lady suffered, and to which the remarkable phenomena she is said
to exhibit are ascribed:

"The story of Miss Fancher's accident and its melancholy consequences is
quite affecting. It is collected from the various statements given by
half a dozen friends of the family to the _Herald_ reporter. Interwoven
with it is a thread of romance, a tale of early love and courtship, of a
life embittered by a cruel accident, of patient waiting, and a final
release of the suitor from his engagement to marry another.

"Mary's parents live in a sumptuous dwelling on Washington Avenue,
Brooklyn, and were reported to be wealthy. Their favorite daughter
Mollie, as she was called, was sent to Prof. West's High School in
Brooklyn at an early age, and here developed many brilliant qualities of
mind and heart, which augured well for her future. At seventeen she was
pretty, petite and well cultivated. As a member of the Washington Avenue
Baptist Sunday School, she met and learned to love a classmate, named
John Taylor. An engagement followed the intimacy of the Sunday School
class, and the young p