TANNER OUT-DONE.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1066, 29 September 1882, Page 4

TANNER OUT-DONE.

? Ovf. of the m-st extr'ovd’n.ivy cases •of n" insane m 'n attemnti 'g to restore Ins reason bv voluntaiy starvation has been diseovere 1 at the E’nmdpu D untv Insane '•.••him. eighteen mi'es from Tbilnflolphia. The case pr sents an ‘cresting study for merboil men <e morally. Fenrv Clark, aged forty ■years, n well known resident of Had ■donfield fN.J.). who has boon confined In the institution for two years, has aba‘ained absolutely from a’l food, except water, for the snace of forty-one Mays. From the forty s-cond day of r h ; s fast, until the fifty-first day he •drank one pint of milk darv. and from Jinn be "an eating strawberries and •-mi'k. Tin's diet was maintained for ■'■ three weeks, and was then succeeded by oatmeal gruel and milk. The ease is a matter of carefu' record at the i ’S•titution, a-M under circiimstpnces that prevented deception. Therefore 'here Is no 1 'he slightest dmbfc as to the extraordinary performances having been -genuine. Clark, when he first came to the asylum, was very vin'ent at limes, but Hike many insane persons, he was a ravenous eater. His insanity is supposed to be hereditary. Occasionally •’ho has had hio'd intorva I s, and during Hhe<e brief perods he frequently ex pressed the belief that there existed some methods by which the insane might have their affliction alleviated If net entirely done awav with His first attempt to carry out such a theory v as unsuccessful. Everr morning fnr abont eight days he would heat himself about the head with his fists, and then run head first ag inst the walls of his i reams. Fearing that the patient would injure himself, Dr. Brannin, the resi dent physician, had the man closely watched, and succeeded in disabusing liis mind of the idea that such violence would be productive of any good reresult. Clark, vho is very tractable, soon acquiesced, and promised to give up his peculiar theory, aside from which he always acted in a perfectly proper manner, and seeme 1 to have a • dual consciousness even during his most insane moment. To Mrs Stiles the matron of the Asylum (who, by rthe way, is the only woman in America Laving full charge of such an institution), he took a great fimev ; and, -while averse to having anything to do ■with any other of the officials, he confided in her thoroughly, an* l often exvpressed the wish that his mind might be restored to him, ai d that he could bo released Mis Stiles, on being interviewed, ■. said : Mr Clark’s case produced the most intense anxiety among all of us employed here. For forty ore days nothing passed liD lips but water, and tepid water at that. Of this 1 am thoroughly positive, knowing as I do the-ontinuous efforts made every day to induce him to eac. When he began the fast he had been living on the same diet sis the rest of the patients. He came to me and said, seemingly in -a perfectly rational manner, that he was anxious to be cared, and all medical treatment had failed to do any good he proposed totry another motho 1 . of his own. He said he had a brother • also insane, who fasted for fifty-one days and had tin n died from exhaustion, Mr Clark said he did not intend to • carry his experiment to such an extreme, but that the moment he felt it would be proper for him to. break the fast he wo rld do so T hardly credited what the man said at first, hav •,'ing been accustomed to hear all sorts • of ideas from patients, 1 nt on the day following Clark refuse ' to come to the ■table. It was supposed by Mv. Brannin, as well as myself, that the abstinence from food was simply a crazy freak and would not 1 isc 24 bouts. On the second day Clark again refused to eat, and did not go out of his room. ■ On the third he drank astnall cupful of water, and on the fourth day thoroughly alarmed lest he should ca ry his announced intention into full effect, we endeavored to induce him to ■ eat by offering him the most daintily cooked fond obtainable. While thoroughly polite and very mild Clark remained obdurate, and refused ’to take any sus enance. At the end of the seventh day he had drank about six pints of water, and the natural funct’ons of the body had then ceased All of the attendants were instructed to use every possible means to induce the man to partake of nourishment, and a man was with him constant!' through the day It would have been impossible for him to have obtained food at night. All the rooms are locked, and rone of the patients ha/e access to otli r parts of the buildings after sundown We would have been only to glad had he taken food. About ■the tweu ,s etli day he began to get thin and haggard lookin r about the face, and seemed to be feeble 1 1 e said that his head felt better, and that lie did not intend to cat anything as long as he felt so well When the thirtieth day came, and Clark still refused to take nourishmem, both Dr Brannin and myself felt some strong effort must he made to have the fast 1 roken, hut, try as we would nothing would induce th‘> man to change his plan. On the ■thirty fifth 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 lie, ami I would see that he was provided with anything he might fancy. On the afternoon of the fortyEfinst day since Mr Clark had ceased asating Iks sent up word by an atten-

dant that, h- should like to have a cup of cnffe >. I hastened to comply with the request nt once, and h«d a cup of very strong Java prepared, Clark drank it, and f flowed it up nu hour later with n cup of nice, rich milk He a'uek to milk for a week, I think, no • hen added strawherries. This low diet was kept no. oh, for a Ion" ( ; me, probably a mouth ; then he gradually began eating ormeal mu-h and gruel which has been maintained up to to-day “ And you are perfectly positive. Mrs Stiles, that Mr Chirk fasted abso lately, with the exception ot water, for forty-one (lavs 1” *■ Perfectly satisfied,” renlied Mrs Stiles “in fact, I know it. There can he no possible doubt, inasmuch as the attendants were only too anxious to tnroe the man to eat " ‘ l Do you think llie fast has made anv change in Mr Clark’s condition ?” “Well,” replied Mrs Stiles, “he will probably be dis( barged as cured at the next meeting of the Boar I of Freeholders in Alienist,”