Fasting Girls: Their Physiology and PathologyHammond, William A. (William Alexander)
History
Fasting Girls: Their Physiology and Pathology
Hammond, William A. (William Alexander)
Anorexia in children; Fasting; Medicine -- Case studies -- 1800-1900; Psychology, Pathological
"We made our third visit at two o'clock. There were still fifteen
minutes before the beginning of the ecstatic crisis, which always took
place punctually at a quarter past two and ended at about half past
four. The pupils at this time were slightly contracted, the eyelids were
almost entirely closed; the eyes, looking at nothing, were veiled from
our view. We tried in vain to attract her attention; her mind was
otherwise engaged, and her pains were evidently becoming more intense.
At exactly a quarter past two her eyes became fixed in a direction above
and to the right. The ecstasy had begun.
"The time had now come to introduce those who were prompted by
curiosity. This could now be done without inconvenience, for the
ecstatic, for the ensuing two hours, would be lost to the appreciation
of what might be passing around her. The room crowded, could hold about
ten persons, but enough were allowed to enter to make the total
twenty-five. These placed themselves in two ranks, of which the front
one kneeling, allowed the rear ones to see all that was going on. All
this was done under the direction of M. le Curé, who took every pains to
give us a good view of what was going to happen.
"Louise was seated on the edge of her chair; her body, inclined forward,
seemed to wish to follow the direction of her eyes, which did not look,
but were fixed on vacancy. Her eyes were opened to their fullest
extent, of a dull, lustreless appearance, turned above and to the right,
and of an absolute immobility. A few workings of the lids were now
observed and became more frequent if the eyelids were touched. The
pupils, largely dilated, showed very little sensibility to light, and
all that remained of vision was shown by slight winking when the hand
was suddenly brought close to the eyes. The whole face lacked
expression. At certain moments, either spontaneously or as a consequence
of divers provocations, a light smile, to which the muscles of the face
generally did not contribute, wandered over her lips. Then the face
resumed its primitive expression, and thus she remained for the
half-hour which constituted the 'first station.'
"The 'second station' was that of genuflection. It had failed at one
time, but had again appeared. The young girl fell on her knees, clasped
her hands, and remained for about a quarter of an hour in the attitude
of contemplation. Then she arose and again resumed her sitting posture.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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