EXTRAORDINARY VITALITY IN A CHILD.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2552, 17 November 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

EXTRAORDINARY VITALITY IN A CHILD.

Dr. W. A. Thomson (Ampthill) writes: —The following' narrative may perhaps be of some interest ;—On Tuesday, July 17, two children, aged respectively four and a.half and five years, left their homes shortly after their dinner at one o'clock. They were seen during the afternoon playing together by the side of a pond, with shoes and soeks off their feet, by a passing labourer, who shouted to them to leave the water, and it appears that the boys ran away frightened iu different directions. The eldest boy arrived home some hours later on, and stated that he had lost his companion nud knew nothing as to what had become of him. Search was mado about the roads and paths where the children had been seen, but to no purpose. It was now getting dark, and, the police being informed, a large party started off in search, some with lanterns, and some with St. Bernard and retriever dogs. Rain fell nearly all that night, but the search was continued, night and day, for several days. It rained heavily frequently during this period. All hope of Huding the child was now abandoned. However, on the Sunday morning following (July 22) some young men aud boys were having another look round the fields, wheu, at about 10 a.m., one of them thought he heard some groaning in a field of wheat near to him, and, on going there, fouud the little boy sitting on the ground, not so very far from the pathway. He was sitting upon his coat, with his little trousers drawn down over liis feet, and crying out, ''Mother! mother! lam so hungry !" How long he had been in this spot and in that condition of attire we cannot make out, and he is too young to give much explanation. When found he appeared to be in a semi-conscious state, and did not seem to know those around him; but after some hours he recognised his mother and brothers. With suitable treatment the child lias completely recovered, without any subsequent illness which might be induced by starvation or exposure to wet and cold for the long period of rive days and nights, counting from the dinner hour on Tuesday until 10 a.m. on the Sunday following. During this time, as far as anyone knows, the child had nothing to eat except the heads of the growing wheat (which was iu very poor condition at that time.) He told me that he had eaten some, and we may presume he sucked water off the wheat and grass about him. Curiously enough, the child hid out with him a small tin box without a lid, and he states that ho tried to catch rain-water in it, but could not get any; the wheat being very high probably prevented him doing so, and also most linely kept him fairly dry. In appearance the child did not seem much the worse for his prolonged fast, and seemed as plump as any ordinary child ; but the mother states that he was an unusually strong and fat boy. Taking all things into consideration —the child's age, no proper food or drink for over, 117 hours the exposure to the « et and cold weather prevailing at the time, the misery and the loneliness it must havo endured for so long a period —it seems somewhat remarkable that life was preserved.—British Medical Journal.