of water, compelling thirteen men and boys to
take refuge in such of the workings as still
remained dry. From Tuesday, the sixteenth,
to Monday, the twenty-second, they had no
food; and yet all save one were brought up
alive, and fully recovered.

But now for a few female examples. Cecilia
de Rygeway, having been imprisoned in
Nottingham jail for the murder of her husband,
during the reign of Edward the Third (the
year 1357), remained "mute and abstinent" for
forty days, neither eating nor drinking during
this time. It was considered so much in the
nature of a religious sign or miracle that Dame
Rygeway was pardoned by the king.

Coming down to later times, we find the
case recorded by Plot, in his History of
Staffordshire, of one Mary Waughton, who, during
the whole of her life, was accustomed to live
upon an incredibly small quantity of food and
drink. A piece of bread-and-butter about the
size of half-a-crown, or a piece of meat not
larger than a pigeon's egg, was her daily
ration; while for beverage she took only a
spoonful or two of milk-and-water. We are
told that she was a fresh-complexioned and
healthy maiden; and Dr. Plot complacently
demands credence for the story on the ground
that she was "of the Church of England, and
therefore the less likely to put a trick upon the
world."

The eighteenth century produced many
instances with which journalists were busy. One
was the case of Christina Michelot, a young
French girl, who, in 1751, took to a sudden fit
of fasting after a serious attack of fever. It is
not very clear whether she was actually unable
or only unwilling to eat; but, according to the
narrative, she took nothing but water from
November, 1751, to July, 1755, a period of
more than three years and a half, without any
solid food whatever. During this time she
advanced from her eleventh to her fifteenth
year, after which she resumed the usual habits
of eating and drinking. This case attracted
much attention among French physicians at
the time; as did likewise that of Maria Matcheteria
among German physicians in 1774. This
was a woman approaching middle age, who,
after an attack of fever and nervous malady,
became an involuntary faster. For two years,
we are told, she took nothing but curds-and-
whey and water, and for another year nothing
whatever of food or drink. The fact was
commented upon, however, that she swallowed a
bit of the consecrated wafer once a week at the
Eucharist; and from this it was inferred that
she could swallow if she chose. How far
disinclination, or dissimulation, or both, were
mixed up in the case, it is impossible now to
prove; but it may be very easily and sensibly
guessed at.

Our own country, in the same century,
presented many instances more or less resembling
those of the French girl and the Swabian woman.
Of these, two will suffice as illustrations. In
1762, Ann Walsh, a girl of twelve years old
living at Harrogate, suddenly lost her appetite,
through causes not at all apparent. She left
off solid food entirely, living upon one-third of
a pint of wine-and-water daily; this continued
for eighteen months, after which she recovered
her normal state of appetite. Ten years later,
in 1772, was presented that case which Pennant
records in his Tour in Scotland. Katherine
M'Leod of Ross-shire, at the age of thirty-five,
was attacked with a fever which brought on
almost total blindness, and also an inability to
swallow food. It is averred that, for a year
and three quarters, there was no evidence that
food or drink passed down her throat, although
a little was frequently put into her mouth.
Pennant saw her in a miserable state of
emaciation; but we have no record of her
subsequent career.

Perhaps the most noted instance of all was
that of the "Fasting Woman of Tutbury,"
not only for its marvels, but for its audacious
fraud. During the early years of the present
century she was the talk of the county, and
of many other parts of England. In November,
1808, a surgeon resolved to visit her, and
to ascertain as much of the truth as possible.
She told him that her name was Ann Moore,
that she was fifty-eight years of age, and that
she had gone twenty months without food.
According to her account, she had had a severe
attack of illness in the year 1804, which lasted
thirteen weeks. Her recovery was not
complete, for she was troubled during many months
afterwards with violent fits and spasms at
frequent and regular intervals. Another
inflammatory attack came on in 1805, and lasted
eleven weeks. When she recovered from this,
her fits and spasms were gone, but were
followed by loss of appetite and difficulty of
digestion. Her attendance in 1806, on a sick
boy afflicted with a repulsive disease, decreased
her power of assimilating food. From October
in that year to February, 1807, she ate only a
penny loaf in a fortnight, and drank a little
tea without milk or sugar. From that time
she lived (according to her own story) till
November, 1808, without any solid food, taking
only water and tea. The surgeon (who, by
the way, was only V.S., not M.R.C.S.) could
not detect any flaw in her story. When it was
published in the Monthly Magazine, early in
1809, it made a prodigious sensation; and on
this sensation the woman lived four years. At
last, in 1813, a few scientific men in the
neighbourhood determined to sift the matter to the
bottom; for Ann Moore still continued to
declare to the world that she took no solid food
whatever, and only just liquid enough to
moisten her tongue and lips. They got her to
consent, as the only true test of her sincerity,
to let them guard and watch her room, as a
means of assuring that no food of any kind
should be brought in. The woman was
probably rendered very anxious by this ordeal,
but could not positively refuse it without causing
a suspicion of deception. The watch-and-
ward began, and lasted nine days. The wretched
creature bore the test thus far, and then
gave in—terribly emaciated, and really almost