THE DEATH OF DR. TANNER.

Kumara Times, Issue 1578, 18 October 1881, Page 2

THE DEATH OF DR. TANNER.

The American faster, Dr. Tanner, has departed tins life with an unostentatiousness strongly contrasting with the sensational manner in which he last year contrived to live through his battle against hunger. About a month ago he arrived in Amsterdam, and alighted at the Hotel Cornelius. He was accompanied by Mrs Dr. Tanner and two children. For a week alter his arrival in Amsterdam Dr. Tanner confined himself to his room in the hotel. It is reported that during this time he used to eat five or six meals a day with a ravenous appetite, besides consuming a large quantity of spirits. At.lengtb he informed the hotel keeper who he was, and stated that he had come to see Dr. Croff. This physician had, in several Dutch papers, expressed disbelief iu the genuineness of Dr. Tanner’s well-known fast, and declared the latter must have obtained nutriment by secret means. I he object of Dr. Tanner going to Amsterdam was to perform in Dr. Croft’s house a fast similar to that which he had gone throng'.; in America last Autumn. The wager was to be 50,000 francs, or i’2ooo. Dr. Croff,

who was away at the time Dr. Tanner reached Amsterdam, returned home the other day, and at once sent a messenger to the American, who had begun to grow impatient of the delay. Rej 'iced to hem- that Dr. Uroff had at length edit'd, Dr. Tan net ran out of his room to receive him, hut in doing so missed his footing »i the top of the stairs and fell to the bottom. The fall caused concussion of the brain and other injuries, and the unfortunate faster breathed his last the very next day. The medical men of Amsterdam desired to open the body of Dr. Tanner, but to this Mrs Tanner, iti spite of all their entreaties and offers, would not consent. She, however, agreed to allow the body to be weighed, when it was found that its weight was only 1081bs. It will be remembered that at the end of his fast Dr. Tanner only weighed 961bs. ,