SIGNOR SUCCI, THE FASTING MAN.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 470, 10 May 1890, Page 5

SIGNOR SUCCI, THE FASTING MAN.

Signor Giovanni Succi, who, according to our cablegrams the other day, successfully completed his forty days’ fast at the London Aquarium, was watched day and night by relays of independent persons, three at least being always present. He was also, of course, under the eye of the public during the hourswhen the Aquarium is open, and was at all times ready to converse with them or answer any questions. Unlike Dr. Tanner, be takes plenty of exercise during his fast, fencing, boxing, swimming, and so on, and he stated his intention of going out for a walk of at least an hour’s duration when the forty days are ended. A press representative happened upon him as he was finishing his last meal, which consisted of boiled salmon, curried mutton, roast beef, Gruyere cheese, bread, but no vegetables ; claret and coffee, with cognac. When fasting he takes nothing but water, and, if he feels sick, twenty or thirty drops of an elixir of his own preparation. Dr. G. Norman Robins attended each morning, took his pulse and temperature, and issued a bulletin. The Signor is a small, wiry man, thirtyseven years of age, a native of Bologna, and unmarried. He has performed many feats of fasting, once, in Africa, refraining from food for sixty days. His last fast, which was for thirty days, came to an end on the 18th January, at Brussels. He states that he feels a great desire for food for the first few days, which gradually wears off. He loses about 4ilb in weight the first day, becoming less as the fast progresses, until it is scarcely perceptible. His weight in his clothes at the commencement of the fast was 9st lOJlb.