“Could he not have obtained food at night?” was asked.
“It would have been impossible,” replied Mrs. ——. “All the rooms are locked, and none of the patients have access to other parts of the building after sundown. We would have been only too glad had he taken food. About the 20th day he began to get thin and haggard-looking about the face, and seemed to be feeble. He said that his head felt better, and that he did not intend to eat anything as long as he felt so well. On the 35th day he became so weak that he had to go to bed, and remained there until he broke the fast. I had told him that whenever
he wanted to eat to send me word, no matter what hour of the night or day it happened to be, and I would see that he was provided with anything he might fancy. On the afternoon of the 41st day since Mr. —— had ceased eating,” continued Mrs. ——, “he sent up word by an attendant that he should like to have a cup of coffee.[52] I hastened to comply with the request at once, and had a cup of very strong Java prepared. Mr. —— drank it, and followed it up an hour later with a cup of nice, rich milk. He stuck to the milk for a week, I think, and then added strawberries. This low diet was kept up, oh, for a long time, probably a month, then he gradually began eating oatmeal mush and gruel, which has been maintained up to to-day.”
[52] One of the worst moves be could have made; but it is significant that this was his last attempt to return to his coffee habit. In his renewed state it proved no longer enticing!
“And you are perfectly positive, Mrs. ——, that Mr. —— fasted absolutely, with the exception of water, for forty-one days?”
“Perfectly satisfied,” replied Mrs. ——; “in fact, I know it. There can be no possible doubt, inasmuch as the attendants were only too anxious to force the man to eat.”
“Do you think the fast has made any change in Mr. ——’s condition?”
“Well,” replied Mrs. ——, “he will probably be discharged as cured at the next meeting of the board of freeholders in August.”[53]
[53] It is a matter of regret to me that this book goes to press before I can ascertain the final result. Judging from the above account, however, I should expect a thoroughly successful ending, unless it should transpire that, true to their instincts, the attendants prevailed upon the patient to abandon the simple regimen, which he adopted after the fast, and resume the ordinary stimulating diet; in which case I should confidently expect a complete relapse.
As a hint regarding the effect of a stimulating and excessive diet upon persons of unsound mind, I subjoin a brief note taken during the trial of the most celebrated lunatic of modern times: “Guiteau’s appetite is quite as remarkable as his insolence. He has breakfast served in his room at the court-house about nine o’clock, and usually consumes at this meal a pound of steak, nine buckwheat cakes, three roasted potatoes, and five cups of coffee. Then, at half-past twelve, he gorges himself on roast beef and mutton.”