DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70302#0072
56
EFFECTS OF LONG ABSTINENCE.
the whole expence of burying the old man. This he did,
and afterwards insisting on his right, the elder brother
turned him out of doors, and though he knew he was
master of such an important secret, he refused to afford
the least assistance, or to give a morsel of bread to his
hungry children, begging at the door of their hard-hearted
uncle. Besides his incest, and the murder of the young
woman, who was with child by him, he confessed that he
broke, with a violent blow, the arm of one Amos Killer,
which occasioned the poor fellow’s death.
Remarkable Instance of the Effects of long Abstinence.
In the second volume of the Medical Communications,
Dr. Willan has reported a case of abstinence, perhaps
the most remarkable and of longer continuance than any
on record.
A young man of a studious and melancholy disposition,
troubled with some symptoms of indigestion and internal
complaints, doubtless instigated likewise by a strong
imagination and mistaken notions relative to religion,
suddenly formed the resolution of curing himself by the
most rigid abstinence. He accordingly withdrew from
his business and his friends, and took lodgings in an ob-
scure situation. Here he determined to abstain from all
solid food, and only to moisten his mouth from time to
time with water, slightly flavoured with the juice of
oranges. After three days abstinence, the craving for
food subsided, and he pursued his studies without incon-
venience. He took no exercise, slept little, and passed
the greatest part of the night in reading.—The quantity of
water he used each day was from half a pint to a pint, and
the juice of two oranges with which he flavoured his water
served him a week.
In
EFFECTS OF LONG ABSTINENCE.
the whole expence of burying the old man. This he did,
and afterwards insisting on his right, the elder brother
turned him out of doors, and though he knew he was
master of such an important secret, he refused to afford
the least assistance, or to give a morsel of bread to his
hungry children, begging at the door of their hard-hearted
uncle. Besides his incest, and the murder of the young
woman, who was with child by him, he confessed that he
broke, with a violent blow, the arm of one Amos Killer,
which occasioned the poor fellow’s death.
Remarkable Instance of the Effects of long Abstinence.
In the second volume of the Medical Communications,
Dr. Willan has reported a case of abstinence, perhaps
the most remarkable and of longer continuance than any
on record.
A young man of a studious and melancholy disposition,
troubled with some symptoms of indigestion and internal
complaints, doubtless instigated likewise by a strong
imagination and mistaken notions relative to religion,
suddenly formed the resolution of curing himself by the
most rigid abstinence. He accordingly withdrew from
his business and his friends, and took lodgings in an ob-
scure situation. Here he determined to abstain from all
solid food, and only to moisten his mouth from time to
time with water, slightly flavoured with the juice of
oranges. After three days abstinence, the craving for
food subsided, and he pursued his studies without incon-
venience. He took no exercise, slept little, and passed
the greatest part of the night in reading.—The quantity of
water he used each day was from half a pint to a pint, and
the juice of two oranges with which he flavoured his water
served him a week.
In