Fasting Girls Their Physiology and Pathology   By: William Alexander Hammond (1828-1900)

CEREBRAL HYPERÆMIA: THE RESULT OF MENTAL STRAIN OR EMOTIONAL DISTURBANCES. 16mo, cloth ... $1 00

"Under the disguise of these hard words, Dr. Hammond presents a variety of admirable counsels, with regard to an excess of blood in the head, pointing out its causes, its symptoms, the mode of its medical treatment, and the means of its prevention." N. Y. Tribune.

"The work is not only of interest to the medical man, but also is one easily understood and to be read with profit by brain workers of all classes, whether in profession, in literature or business. It treats of the cause of headaches, the wakefulness, the illusions or delusions, and feelings of tightness in the head, which so many of our American writers and thinkers experience, and it gives valuable information available by laymen as to the prevention and remedy for this affection, which later on leads to insanity or death." Boston Traveller.

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK.

FASTING GIRLS;

THEIR PHYSIOLOGY AND PATHOLOGY

BY

WILLIAM A. HAMMOND, M.D.

PROFESSOR OF DISEASES OF THE MIND AND NERVOUS SYSTEM IN THE MEDICAL DEPARTMENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK, AND IN THE UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT. ETC.

"There is no new thing under the Sun." Eccl. I, 9.

"Nil spernat auris, nec tamen credat statim." PHÆDRUS.

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.