Fasting Girls Part 6

But however this may be, whatever the explanation, it is quite certain that if Miss Fancher has lived fourteen years without food, or even fourteen months, or weeks, she is a unique psychological or pathological individual, whose case is worthy of all the consideration which can be given to it, not by superst.i.tious or credulous or ignorant persons, but by those who, trained in the proper methods of scientific research, would know how to get the whole truth of her case, and nothing but the truth. It is to be regretted, therefore, that the proposition contained in the annexed letter (Appendix) was not accepted, and that we are forced to place Miss Fancher's case among the others which have proved to be fallacious, till such time as it may suit her and her friends to allow of such an examination.

FOOTNOTES:

[15] Recherches experimentales sur l'inanition. Paris, 1843, p. 20.

[16] Universal Magazine, Vol. x.x.xVI, p. 250.

[17] Abridged Philosophical Transaction, Vol. III, p. 111.

[18] Traite de medecine legale et d'hygiene publique. Paris, 1813. t.

II, p. 285.

[19] Medical Gazette, Vol. XVII, p. 389.

[20] Des maladies mentales. Paris, 1838, p. 203.

[21] Du refus de manger chez les alienes. These de Paris 1864, p.

[22] Nouveau dictionnaire de medecine et de chirurgie pratiques. Paris, 1874. t. XVIII., Art. Inanition, p. 503.

[23] New York Medical and Surgical Journal, Vol. II, p. 31.

[24] Quoted from Trans. of the Albany Inst.i.tute by Dr. Lee in Copland's Dictionary of Medicine. Vol. I, p. 31.

[25] Recherches experimentales sur les effets de l'abstinence. _Journal de Physiologie_ de Magendie, t. VIII, p. 150.

[26] De l'anorexie hysterique. _Archives generales de medecine_, April 1875.

[27] Lecons sur les maladies du systeme nerveux, t. I., 2d edition.

Paris, 1876, p. 178.

APPENDIX.

The following letter embraces the proposition made to Miss Fancher, to which allusion is made in the text:

TO THE EDITOR OF THE HERALD:--

I have read the letter of Professor Henry M. Parkhurst, published in a recent issue of the HERALD, relative to the "mind reading" or clairvoyance of Miss Mollie Fancher, of Brooklyn, and it does not satisfy me that the young lady in question possesses any such power.

It would have been very easy for her to have opened the envelope without disturbing the seal and to have read the contents. Now, there has been a great deal of talk about Miss Fancher's case. I have received just fifty-seven letters asking me to investigate it, and the press has reiterated the invitation over and over again. I have stated very explicitly that I regard the whole matter as a humbug of the most decided kind, but I have never a.s.serted the impossibility of the young lady's alleged performances. On the contrary, I hold nothing to be absolutely impossible outside the domain of mathematics. But possibilities and realities are very different things, and I certainly will not accept as true any such phenomena as those a.s.serted to have been a.s.sociated with Miss Fancher unless they are proven.

I have already declared my readiness to investigate Miss Fancher, and, a few days since, in the _Sun_, proposed a test which will be perfectly satisfactory to me and many others who, at present, are in accordance with me in my estimation of this young lady. Permit me now to state it definitely, specifically, and once for all. I will place a certified check for a sum of money exceeding $1,000 inside of a single paper envelope. I will lay the package on a table in the room in which she is. If she chooses she may take it in her hands and place it in contact with any part of her body. I will allow her half an hour to describe the check. If she reads it--number, date, on whom drawn, amount, signature, etc.--accurately, she may have the check as her own property, or I will give the amount expressed in the check, in her name to any charitable inst.i.tution she may designate, or otherwise dispose of it in accordance with her wishes.

The only conditions I exact are these:--

_First_--That the experiment be conducted in my presence and in that of two other physicians, members of the New York Neurological Society, whom I will bring with me as witness simply, and who will not interfere in any way with the test.

_Second_--That the envelope shall at no time pa.s.s out of our sight.

If Miss Fancher succeeds in this test I will admit that heretofore in my denunciations of such performances as hers I have been in error, and that there is a force in nature which ought to be investigated. I will pay the money not only without chagrin, but with great satisfaction, and will consider that I have received full value.

If she fails, as I am quite sure she will, I shall not hesitate to continue to denounce her as an imposition in this as well as in her a.s.sumed abstinence from food.

A word further in regard to this last matter. I know something about "fasting girls" and their frauds, not excepting the sad case of poor little Sarah Jacob. But I will make this additional proposition:--If Miss Fancher will allow herself to be watched, day and night, for one month, by relays of members of the New York Neurological Society, I will give her $1,000 if at the end of that month she has not in the meantime taken food voluntarily or as a forced measure to save her from dying of starvation, the danger of this last contingency to be judged of by her family physician, Dr. Speir.

These offers to remain open for acceptance till twelve o'clock M., December 31st. If not taken up by that time, let us hear no more in support of Miss Fancher's mind reading or clairvoyance, or living for a dozen or more years without food.

WILLIAM A. HAMMOND, M.D.

_43 West Fifty-Fourth Street, New York, Dec. 12th, 1878._