A REMARKABLE COINCIDENCE.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5378, 22 June 1878, Page 2 (Supplement)

A REMARKABLE COINCIDENCE.

About thirty years ago there flourished in the town of Plymouth, Devonshire, England, a follower of Esoulapius who had gained much celebrity for the many wonderful cures he had effected. His name was Dr. Budd. Contemporaneous dwelt a farmer in ° different part of the same country, who had a largo family of sons and daughters. One day, whilst out haymaking in the field, one of the farmer's daughters, aged ten years, drank from a stagnant pool. She was subsequently taken ill, and her father took her to several eminent doctors, but all to no purpose, for she remained a sickly emaciated girl till she reached the ago of sixteen or seventeen years, when her grandmother, hearing of the fame of Dr. Budd, resolved to take the girl to him for treatment. This was accordingly done, and after patiently listening to a history of her malady, the doctor stated that he would require the girl to be left with him. for a week or fortnight. After some demur this course was consented to by the girl’s grandmother. As soon as the grandmother left, the doctor locked the girl up in a room by herself, giving her lots of playthings to amuse herself with, but no. food whatever. This system of starving was kept up for three days, much to the discomfiture of the poor girl, who although so low in condition had always been a most ravenous eater. At last, one day the doctor went into the room with his servant, the latter carrying a most tempting piece of steak, which he placed close to the nose of the girl, but held her hands behind her back to stop her. After a while a great worm was observed to come out of her nose, enticed by the smell, and the doctor, in his hurry to secure the intruder, let it slip, and it went back. However, the worm was so famished by the long enforced fast of the girl that a second time it made its appearance, and Dr. Budd secured his prize, and the girl rapidly became well and strong. The fame of this cure spread throughout Devonshire, and indeed over a considerable portion of England. The sequel to this happened in- Echuca some years ago, when a well-known and respected member of Eclmoa bailing from Devonshire was relating the anecdote to a new acquaintance, also from Devonshire. Greatly to the surprise of the narrator, the listener informed him that she was the very patient upon whom the wonderful cure had been effected. The farmer’s daughterhad grown up a fine, strapping, healthy woman, and is now the wife of an engine-driver employed on the North-Eastern Hue in Victoria, and the mother of a large family of sons and daughters. More than this, slid is heir expectant to an immense fortune which has beeir in chancery for many years, but will, it is expected, be finally settled in a few weeks’ time. The famous Dr. Budd was brother of the Rev. Theodore Budd, for many years the resident clergyman of the Church of England at Heathoote, the official head-quarters of the elsotorate of Rodney. The source from which wo (Echuca and Moama Advertiser) obtained the particulars of this romance we can vouch (or.