seemingly
a most agreeable, and wholesome food. I examined this man with all the
attention I possibly could ; I found his gullet very large ; his teeth
exceedÂingly strong ; his saliva very corrosive ; his stomach placed
lower than ordinary. As to the vast number of flints he had swallowed,
these were about five and twenty, one day with another. His keeper
tells me that some physicians at Paris got him blooded ; that the blood
had little or no, serum ; and in two hours' time it became as fragile
as Coral."
" In the Learned Sennertus's Paralipomena," says Kobert Boyle, (Experimental Phihsophie,) "we
are told that in the end of the yeare 1632 there lived at that time,
and belonging to a Noble Man of those Parts, a certain Lorainer,
somewhat low, and slender, and about 58 years of age, who would swallow
any substance, however nauseous, or distasteful; Glass, Stones, Wood,
Coals, Bones, pieces of Linen, or Woollen fabric; the hairy feet of
Animals, living creatures, Fish, when still leaping about, likewise
hard Metals, Cups, and tin balls, which he was often seen to crush with
his teeth, and to devour." " Some other examples of this nature we have
also met with, especially that of the Glass-eater mentioned by
Columbus." " And not long ago there was here in England a private
souldier (who for aught I know is yet alive) very famous for digesting
of Stones. And a very inquisitive Man that gave me the accuratest
account I have met with concerning him, assures me that he knew him
familiarly, and had the curiosity to keep in his company for
twenty-four hours together, to watch him; and not only observed that he
eat nothing in that time, save Stones (or fragments of them) of a
pretty bigness ; but that
