A BOY LIVING ELEVEN MONTHS IN WATER.

Manawatu Times, Volume II, Issue 24, 10 January 1877, Page 3

A BOY LIVING ELEVEN MONTHS IN WATER.

• « A physiological phenomenon of an unprecedented character has attracted considerable notice from tourists m the Eotorua country. At the outlet of the small warm stream flowing from Lake Rotomahana into Tarawera, several hot water springs occur. In a bath which receives the overflow from one of these springs, a Maori boy about thirteen years old, has lived uninterruptedly for eleven months, the whole of his body up to the neck being immersed. The poor little fellow was suffering from disease of the knee, attended with acute pain, and was brought to his bath by his parents m the hope of effecting a cure. He found almost instant relief, but upon leaving the bath the pains returned with greater intensity. He then exhibited the strongest reluctance to get out of the water, and was permitted to remain m it continuously, sitting on the bottom with a support of fern for his head. After a month or two, removal became impossible. When the lad was taken out of his bath he sufferred the most excruciating agony, and became rigid. Upon returning to the bath his pain ceased, and he was able to move about m the water with freedom and ease. He has now remained m this position eleven months. A roof of thatch has been built over him, and his parents supply him -with fobd. The little fellow can speak a few disjointed words of English, and asks visitors for bread. He is free from pain, but has wasted away until his body has become reduced to skin and bone — a living skeleton, his face however, still preserving fair proportions. He can move his limbs with freedom, and holds up his swollen and blistered knee, which formed the original cause of his trouble, for the inspection of visitors. The water m the bath is as hot as can comfortably be borne by a healthy hand, and through remaining stagnant, except so far as it has been purified by the small overflow, has become of a dark green colour. The skin of the boy's hands, and other portions of his body, has turned a whitish water-worn hue, resembling that produced by soda m warm water. The case is one calculated to exite curiosity among medical men. — Auckland " Evening Star."