A SINGULAR DELUSION.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1069, 13 February 1883, Page 3

A SINGULAR DELUSION.

The Montreal correspondent of the New York Herald writes as follows : ' A remarkable case of prolonged voluntary fasting occurred here. A young man named Charles Fallon, a bookkeeper in a large produce house here, took it into his head more than i month ago that he was commanded by God to abstin from taking food. The appeals of his mother and sister were unavailing, and he would listen to no remonstrance either of the family rhysician or the pastor of the church, tie was moral in character and exemplary in conduct. His family are in comfortable C'rcutrstances. Dr W. H. Hingston attended him and watched the case. A week passed, and beyond an occasional sip of water young Fallon would take no nourishment. There was n> insanity about him, neither did he meditate suicide. In answer to all entreaties he said that God would tell him when to eat again. Three weeks passed and still Fallon lingered. Then Dr Howard, an expert in insanity, was called in, and said that the man was sane, and that forcu should be used. Dr Hingston would not sanction this; course. The patient was so emaciated that In? (the doctor) doubted whether bis stomach would ever retain food enough to nourish his body again, and force might kill him instead of doing any good. Meanwhile the Ilov Canon Baldwin, whose Bible class Fallon had .attended, was doing all in his powar to induce the young man to eat. ' Have you a revelation from God that I am to eat ?' was the answer of FalJon. This nonplussed the reverend gentleaian, who,

however, enlisted the pnu <rs of Christians lor him. Finally, on the thiitythb'd day of the fast, Fallon remarked to his mother that he thought he would eat something. "Dv Hingston then provide such food as he believed the emaciated body could stand, and Fallon is now 0:1 a fair way to recovery. The case is one which creates much interest in the medical profession here."