Dr. Fowler, the medical officer of the East London Union,
has been to see the Welsh fasting girl, Sarah Jacob, at some village with an unpronounceable name in Carmarthenshire, and he gives it as his opinion that she is in a condition of what is called "simulative hysteria," i.e., really suffering from an hysterical disease of which dissimulation for the purpose of exciting wonder or compassion is one of the commonest symptoms. He does not believe that she goes without food at all, and says the arrangement of the bed and the cupboards near it are all of a kind to facilitate her getting food easilywithout its being known to her parents; but as the
child has been in this state now for all but two years, and during the whole of that time, ostensibly lying on her bed without touching food, it is quite impossible that if she does habitually get fed they are not in the secret ; and as they are always receiving presents on behalf of the girl, they must profit by the supposed miracle. Indeed, if food brought into the house habitually disappears, we may be perfectly sure the girl's mother at least knows it. Dr. Fowler says that the watch more than once set on the girl to satisfy the public whether she did really get food or not was a palpable delusion, because the watchers were expressly prohibited from touching the bed on which she lay. No doubt that was suspicious, but if they watched the girl's mouth continually, and saw nothing go into it, that would surely have been enough ? She could hardly feed herself without the help of her mouth? The chances are that in her hysterical state she can fast longer than most people, but that at given periods her parents feed her, or at least connive at her feeding. The child seemed intelligent, plump, and in good health but for the hysterical symptoms.
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