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Victorian Era 'Fasting Girls' (Sarah Jacob, Etc.; 19th Century)

uair01

uair01

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https://www.amazon.de/Wonderful-Lit...&keywords=fasting+girls&qid=1615114911&sr=8-6

On a winter's day in 1869, two surgeons performed an autopsy on the body of a 12-year-old Welsh girl who had died in strange circumstances. Though very beautiful, there were signs that she had suffered greatly towards the end. This is the true story of a remarkable child, who enchanted everyone, but who, at the age of 10, suddenly took to her bed. During the last 2 years of her life she allegedly had nothing to eat or drink at all, and yet mysteriously survived. Sarah Jacob's family claimed she was a miracle, and as her fame grew, thousands flocked to her bedside. Was she living on thin air? Doctors felt compelled to investigate and began a round-the-clock vigil which quickly killed her. Sarah Jacob was a tragic child celebrity?a victim of the era in which she lived, when Science and Faith were grappling with the conscience of man.

Synopsis
There was only one way to find out. Determined to expose the truth about Sarah, a team of doctors descended on the Jacobs' tiny Carmathenshire farmstead to put the miracle girl to the test - with terrible consequences.
 
uair01 said:
https://www.amazon.de/Wonderful-Lit...&keywords=fasting+girls&qid=1615114911&sr=8-6

On a winter's day in 1869, two surgeons performed an autopsy on the body of a 12-year-old Welsh girl who had died in strange circumstances. Though very beautiful, there were signs that she had suffered greatly towards the end. This is the true story of a remarkable child, who enchanted everyone, but who, at the age of 10, suddenly took to her bed. During the last 2 years of her life she allegedly had nothing to eat or drink at all, and yet mysteriously survived. Sarah Jacob's family claimed she was a miracle, and as her fame grew, thousands flocked to her bedside. Was she living on thin air? Doctors felt compelled to investigate and began a round-the-clock vigil which quickly killed her. Sarah Jacob was a tragic child celebrity?a victim of the era in which she lived, when Science and Faith were grappling with the conscience of man.

Synopsis
There was only one way to find out. Determined to expose the truth about Sarah, a team of doctors descended on the Jacobs' tiny Carmathenshire farmstead to put the miracle girl to the test - with terrible consequences.
Click to expand...
She was probably sneakily eating food in the dead of night when everybody was asleep!
 
Sarah Jacob was popularly known as the 'Welsh Fasting Girl' - one of multiple girls renowned for surviving without food during the late 19th century.
Fasting girl

A fasting girl was one of a number of young Victorian era girls, usually pre-adolescent, who claimed to be able to survive over indefinitely long periods of time without consuming any food or other nourishment. In addition to refusing food, fasting girls claimed to have special religious or magical powers.

The ability to survive without nourishment was attributed to some saints during the Middle Ages, including Catherine of Siena and Lidwina of Schiedam, and regarded as a miracle and a sign of sanctity. Numerous cases of fasting girls were reported in the late 19th century. Believers regarded such cases as miraculous.

In some cases, the fasting girls also exhibited the appearance of stigmata. Doctors, however, such as William A. Hammond ascribed the phenomenon to fraud and hysteria on the part of the girl. Historian Joan Jacobs Brumberg believes the phenomenon to be an early example of anorexia nervosa.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fasting_girl
 
Sarah Jacob died 8 days after being subjected to careful round-the-clock monitoring by 4 nurses and a team of 7 physicians - a test requested by Sarah and her parents.

A report detailing Sarah Jacob's final days and the results of her post-mortem examination was published by one of the seven doctors in attendance.

A Continuance of the Case of the Welsh Fasting Girl
With an Account of the Post Mortem Appearances
Thomas Lewis
Br Med J. 1870 Jan 8; 1(471): 27–29.
doi: 10.1136/bmj.1.471.27-a

The three-page article is accessible at:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2259906/?page=1
 
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The Welsh National Library provides an online presentation of the legal documentation submitted on behalf of Sarah Jacob's parents, who were prosecuted for her death.
The inquest was held on 21 December 1869. John Phillips, one of two surgeons who performed the post-mortem examination, testified that she died from ‘exhaustion from lack of food. No food whatever was found in her stomach and no liquid in her bladder' (f.62r) … 'the evidence shews no other cause than the want of food and drink for eight days'. (f.66r) It was decided to prosecute the adults who had allowed her death - her parents, and the doctors who had supervised surveillance over her - for unlawful killing. Carmarthen magistrates criticized the doctors for their foolish behaviour but her parents were sent to stand trial for 'having feloniously killed and slain one Sarah Jacob'. (f.81r) Her parents were found guilty of manslaughter - Evan Jacob sentenced to a year of hard labor in Swansea jail, and his wife jailed for six months.
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SOURCE: https://www.library.wales/discover/digital-gallery/manuscripts/modern-period/sarah-jacob-the-welsh-fasting-girl#?c=&m=&s=&cv=10&xywh=-646,-1,7108,7358
 
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See also Lidwina of Schiedam. Some consider her to be the first documented case of anorexia.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lidwina

After her fall, Lidwina fasted continuously and acquired fame as a healer and holy woman.[2] The town officials of Schiedam, her hometown, promulgated a document (which has survived) that attests to her complete lack of food and sleep.[1] At first she ate a little piece of apple, then a bit of date and watered wine, then river water contaminated with salt from the tides.

Several hagiographical accounts of her life exist. One of these states that while the soldiers of Philip of Burgundy were occupying Schiedam, a guard was set around her to test her fasts, which were authenticated.[1]
 
EnolaGaia said:
A report detailing Sarah Jacob's final days and the results of her post-mortem examination was published by one of the seven doctors in attendance.
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Woah....from the post-mortem report:
2021-03-07 20.40.34.png

"a full sized lumbricus..."?

Surely that's an earthworm? Neither an intestinal parasite, nor a vermiform structure?

2021-03-07 20.37.38.jpg

Photographed from my own real Butterworth's, none of this online-definition-changing-with-the-seasons....(yes, vaccine/herd immunity, I do mean you).

Was this tragic girl secretly eating earthworms? Or am I misinterpreting what the pathologist is reporting??

(Also....
2021-03-07 20.39.09.jpg

....just for additional avoidance of doubt. Certainly within the intestinal tract).

So is this significant? Surely it has to be a relevant point?

ps I'm used to reading long or dense reports and rapidly-spotting anomalies, irrespective of whether they're outwith my official areas of expertise.

pps this is a very-strange and sad story....
 
Ermintruder said:
Woah....from the post-mortem report: "a full sized lumbricus..."?
Surely that's an earthworm? Neither an intestinal parasite, nor a vermiform structure? ...
Was this tragic girl secretly eating earthworms? Or am I misinterpreting what the pathologist is reporting?? ...
So is this significant? Surely it has to be a relevant point? ...
Click to expand...

I noticed that, but I'm not sure of its implications. There are something like 1,800 species within the genus Lumbricus, and although all are terrestrial (as in soil-dwelling) I can't confirm they're all "earthworms" of the garden variety.

Whatever they were ... Partial bits of five more specimens were discovered farther down the intestinal tract. One might therefore wonder whether Sarah had been eating worms or perhaps soil containing worms. Lower intestinal tract contents indicated she'd ingested some material in addition to minute amounts of water.

The fact she died 8 days after the monitoring exercise began strongly suggests she had been secretly taking in some form of nutrition prior to the test.
 
uair01 said:
Sarah Jacob's family claimed she was a miracle, and as her fame grew, thousands flocked to her bedside.
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The Sarah Jacob case needs to be seen in the context of the Welsh Revivals. The latest of these, in 1904 - 05, was the best-documented and most national but it took off in a region that hungered for spiritual renewal - there were preachers still living who remembered the waves of revival from 1859 onwards. Carmarthen itself was the centre of a local revival in 1887.

Often these outbreaks of enthusiasm were driven by the young; there are tales of meetings which ran all night, as, one after another, the teenagers would break into songs and prayers or personal conversion-narratives. To a large extent, this ran counter to the more mainstream forms of Methodism, which stressed duty, self-accounting and examination of the conscience. The people, often under extreme financial stress, yearned for the uplift of a religious experience which was far more visceral and rooted in the Signs and Wonders of the early Christians.

There are many tales of how contagious the revivals could be; in some areas, the taverns could not compete with the chapels. Documentary evidence is often provided in the statistics, which are said to demonstrate steep declines in arrests for drunkenness in communities touched by the higher spirit. It has been argued that the revivals were a channelling of reformist energies, which were stymied politically. Though members of the middle classes were caught up in the enthusiasm, there was a hunger for leaders to arise from the ranks of the humble. In 1904, Evan Roberts became the key figure. His religious awakening dated from his teenage years.

Miraculous healing was attributed to some preachers. Abstinence from pleasures of the flesh was advocated and embraced by many, who reported nocturnal visitations by angels or by God himself. The extreme asceticism practiced by Sarah drew crowds to her bedside, their own hunger for miracles satisfied by her unworldly self-abnegation. :died:
 
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(And was there ever a more appropriate smiley)

I think she was just a fame seeker.

But her parents and the Doctors could have addressed the issue better

did she have no access to a sympathetic priest who might have gently told her suicide was a sin while encouraging her holiness?

I thought the Methodists were beyond these excesses
 
Ermintruder said:
Woah....from the post-mortem report:
View attachment 36341
"a full sized lumbricus..."?

Surely that's an earthworm? Neither an intestinal parasite, nor a vermiform structure?

View attachment 36342
Photographed from my own real Butterworth's, none of this online-definition-changing-with-the-seasons....(yes, vaccine/herd immunity, I do mean you).

Was this tragic girl secretly eating earthworms? Or am I misinterpreting what the pathologist is reporting??

(Also....View attachment 36344
....just for additional avoidance of doubt. Certainly within the intestinal tract).

So is this significant? Surely it has to be a relevant point?

ps I'm used to reading long or dense reports and rapidly-spotting anomalies, irrespective of whether they're outwith my official areas of expertise.

pps this is a very-strange and sad story....
Click to expand...

She wasn't a Lutheran then.
 
Another famous 19th century "fasting girl" was Mollie Fancher of New York. Fasting was but one among several remarkable talents and characteristics attributed to her. Her fasting was periodic (now and then) rather than permanent.

Mary J. "Mollie" Fancher (August 16, 1848 – February, 1916), otherwise known as the "Brooklyn Enigma", was extremely well known for her claim of not eating or eating very little for extended periods of time. She attended a reputable school and, by all reports, was an excellent student. At age 16, she was diagnosed with dyspepsia. At around the age of 19, reports came out that she had abstained from eating for seven weeks.

It was after two accidents, in 1864 and 1865, that she became famous for her ability to abstain from food. As a result of the accidents, Mollie Fancher lost her ability to see, touch, taste, and smell. She claimed to have powers that involved her being able to predict events as well as to read without the ability of sight.

By the late 1870s, she was claiming to eat little or nothing at all for many months. Her claim to abstinence from food lasted for 14 years. Doctors and people in the public began to question her abilities and wished to perform tests to determine the truthfulness of her claims. The claims to abstinence were never verified and she died in February 1916.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fasting_girl
 
EnolaGaia said:
One might therefore wonder whether Sarah had been eating worms or perhaps soil containing worms.
Click to expand...
An idea has suddenly come to me, ready-formed, based upon my clear past recollection of old country cottages in remote parts of Scotland and the north of England, certainly as late as the latter 1960s/early '70s (and therefore assuredly-representative of even wider parts of the western world 100 years prior).

I clearly remember many of these places had no real floors at all: merely very-hard compacted earth.

Unlike the underfoot stone or wooden floor structures of "the big hoose", many cottar and (other working-class) village or small-town dwellings had neither a sealed solum nor a cryptal cavity suspended wooden floor.

Houses tended to have hearth-stones, of course, and a threshold at the doorway (to act as an active flood defence). Upper floors were aspirational urban modernity, or castle-style structures: they were not found in the thatched neo-agrarian mud-floored rubble-built hovels of the common people.

Walls were (and in some places still are) 'plastered on the hard', with horse-hair mixed light clay, or an unseperated wattle-and-daub construction.

This convoluted preamble is to lay the ground for the proposition that young children could easily have conjured-up edible earthworms and other 'snack nematodes' via the rythmic tapping of their fingers upon numerous porous and permissive 'hard' surfaces (in a style similar to birds pitter-patting their feet on the ground to simulate rain, thus producing mobilised kilograms of wriggling ready-to-eat food).

Children will have known about doing this kind of trick effect from their earliest years. Whilst we modern sophisticates might-well be repulsed by the idea of humans eating raw insects emerging from floors and walls, it is beyond doubt that we as a species did exactly that, for many sustentative millenia, long before the advent of solid floors, habitation cavity-gaps and internet forums.
 
Ermintruder said:
Woah....from the post-mortem report:
View attachment 36341
"a full sized lumbricus..."?

Surely that's an earthworm? Neither an intestinal parasite, nor a vermiform structure?

View attachment 36342
Photographed from my own real Butterworth's, none of this online-definition-changing-with-the-seasons....(yes, vaccine/herd immunity, I do mean you).

Was this tragic girl secretly eating earthworms? Or am I misinterpreting what the pathologist is reporting??

(Also....View attachment 36344
....just for additional avoidance of doubt. Certainly within the intestinal tract).

So is this significant? Surely it has to be a relevant point?

ps I'm used to reading long or dense reports and rapidly-spotting anomalies, irrespective of whether they're outwith my official areas of expertise.

pps this is a very-strange and sad story....
Click to expand...

l’ve just spent a couple of minutes looking into this. lt seems that “Lumbricus was an old term for ascaris”. Looking up Ascaris reveals that “it is a genus of nematode or roundworm found in the intestines of humans.”

In short, Sarah wasn’t eating worms, she was suffering from worms.

The infestation is typically caused by using contaminated human faeces as a fertiliser, then failing to wash the edible produce properly before consumption.

“Children are most commonly affected, and in this age group the infection may also cause poor weight gain, malnutrition, and learning problems.”

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascariasis

The symptoms listed above would have been a dangerous combination for Sarah, and would go a long way towards explaining the whole episode.

maximus otter
 
maximus otter said:
In short, Sarah wasn’t eating worms, she was suffering from worms.
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Hmm....it might've been both sets of circumstances. Seriously.

And whilst noting what you've found regarding the alternative legacy definition for the word 'lumbricus', I'm really puzzled as to why my Butterworth's medical dictionary (the standard UK authoritative text, alongside 'Greys', and the BP) doesn't include that angle.

So much for the trustable immutability of Latin technical phraseology, substantially-insulated from the modal terps of era or context.
 
Here's a recent Daily Post (respectable Welsh news website) report on Mary Thomas, of Gwynedd, North Wales, who 'was said to have fasted for years, even decades, never leaving her bed' in the late 18th century. She died in 1812, possibly aged nearly 90.

There is a very nice contemporary engraving of Mary by one James Ward in 1810, drawn two years before her death.

Other 'fasting girls' are also discussed. Interestingly, there was scepticism about them even back in the 15th-19th centuries when they were still alive.

The 'wonder' woman of North Wales who 'ate nothing for 40 years' and became a 'breathing skeleton'

In her late teens, Mary Thomas suffered a terrible illness and, at one point, was “supposed” dead. According to neighbours in her small Gwynedd village, her mother begged God to have Mary “anyhow restored to her”. For better or worse, her wish was granted.

Mary survived but she was confined to bed, where she stayed for the next 70 years. Shocked visitors remarked on her “pitable condition”. Her face was “lank and leathery” and her hands were “so thin and transparent that a candle may be seen through them”. She was, observed many, a “breathing skeleton”.
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