DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70302#0151
PARTICULARS OF STONE-EATERS.
129
What credit is due to the above account, it is impos-
sible at this distance of time to determine. It is not pro-
bable that such an accurate observer as Mr. Boyle was
imposed upon; and indeed his statement is corroborated
by that of Dr. Bulwer, with the addition of other cir-
cumstances, if possible still more extraordinary. That
writer in his Artificial Changeling says, that he “ saw the
man, and that he was an Italian, Francis Batalia by
name ; at that time about thirty years of age ; that he
was born with stones in each hand, which the child took
for his nourishment upon the physician’s advice : and af-
terwards nothing else but three or four pebbles in a
spoon, one in twenty-four hours, and a draught of beer
after them ; and in the interim, now and then a pipe of
tobacco ; for he had been a soldier in Ireland at the
siege of Limerick ; and upon his return to London, was
confined for some time upon suspicion of imposture.”
He is said to have sometimes eaten half a peck of stones
in a day.
Of this man, who possessed such singular powers of di-
gestion, a figure is still extant, engraved by Hollar in
1641, in which he is represented holding a goblet in
one hand, and a plate with stones in the other. Under-
neath is the following inscription : “ The true portraiture
of a Roman youth, whose strang birth and life cannot
be sufficiently admired : hee was borne houlding three
little stones in one hand, and in the other two, and being
hold to his mother’s brest, he refused it with other suste-
nance, whereby his father being phisitian, conjectured,
that nature had given him these stones for foode, and by
trial finding it so, fed him always with stones and read-
wine, which in 6 days space, comes from him converted
into sand; thus hee hath lived the space of 17 years.”
Eccentric, No. III. s
EXTRA-
129
What credit is due to the above account, it is impos-
sible at this distance of time to determine. It is not pro-
bable that such an accurate observer as Mr. Boyle was
imposed upon; and indeed his statement is corroborated
by that of Dr. Bulwer, with the addition of other cir-
cumstances, if possible still more extraordinary. That
writer in his Artificial Changeling says, that he “ saw the
man, and that he was an Italian, Francis Batalia by
name ; at that time about thirty years of age ; that he
was born with stones in each hand, which the child took
for his nourishment upon the physician’s advice : and af-
terwards nothing else but three or four pebbles in a
spoon, one in twenty-four hours, and a draught of beer
after them ; and in the interim, now and then a pipe of
tobacco ; for he had been a soldier in Ireland at the
siege of Limerick ; and upon his return to London, was
confined for some time upon suspicion of imposture.”
He is said to have sometimes eaten half a peck of stones
in a day.
Of this man, who possessed such singular powers of di-
gestion, a figure is still extant, engraved by Hollar in
1641, in which he is represented holding a goblet in
one hand, and a plate with stones in the other. Under-
neath is the following inscription : “ The true portraiture
of a Roman youth, whose strang birth and life cannot
be sufficiently admired : hee was borne houlding three
little stones in one hand, and in the other two, and being
hold to his mother’s brest, he refused it with other suste-
nance, whereby his father being phisitian, conjectured,
that nature had given him these stones for foode, and by
trial finding it so, fed him always with stones and read-
wine, which in 6 days space, comes from him converted
into sand; thus hee hath lived the space of 17 years.”
Eccentric, No. III. s
EXTRA-