[An account of the extraordinary abstinence of Ann Moor, of Tutbury ... who has, since June 1807, lived entirely without food; giving ... an account of the investigation ... and observations on the letters of some medical men who attended it [R. Taylor and J. Allen, with text of their letters] Also other similar cases ... / By a gentleman living near Tutbury [i.e. John Lane?].

Ann Moore

Date:: [1810?]

Credit: [An account of the extraordinary abstinence of Ann Moor, of Tutbury ... who has, since June 1807, lived entirely without food; giving ... an account of the investigation ... and observations on the letters of some medical men who attended it [R. Taylor and J. Allen, with text of their letters] Also other similar cases ... / By a gentleman living near Tutbury [i.e. John Lane?]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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bti4 since the truth of hey’prescht.'state lias been esta¬ blished, she has been very comfortable, and every attendance necessary procured for her. The num¬ ber of people who go to see her is astonishing, and every one giving to her a trifle, for the benefit of her children, she has by this time received something very handsome for them. She is rather above the >j ■ common size, and from her appearance; has been a handsome woman in her younger days., .She is natu- rally of a chearfu! and talkative disposition. It can¬ not he expected that any thing more than what is common can have occurred to a woman in her situ¬ ation of life : I shall therefore proceed now to state every particular concerning her fasting, &c. Her health, she savs, has been declining gradually for many years, and she thinks that she has not been an hour free from pain for nine or ten years previous to her first loss of appetite. The cause which she assigns for it (and it appears to be the most rational .supposition that can be brought forward ) is, Washing out the linen, and attending a person of the name of bamud Orange, who was afflicted with Scrofulous ulcers, of which lie died on the 30th of October T80(:.* The extreme offensive tress of the smell “was such, that no person would come, near it,'nor could » c • 4 • 5 * This is not unphilosophieal; for what can be more probable, than the stomach taking disease after receiving into it the obnoxious vapours from the linen, &e. ? and thus in process of time, by destroying the ner¬ vous irritability of the stomach, of course she entirely lost her appetite. Hunger of itself, if not satisfied, will in time destroy the body, and it is par fly owing to the annihilation of this sense that life still exists j otherwise it would act as a strong stimulus and soon destroy it. It is not impossible but that, the imagination of her stomach being n -eased might affect the nervous irritability thereof, and in time even cause it-, destruction. Effects equally wonderful have besn produced by the power of the imagination, anecdotes of which 1 will relate, A Lady of my acquaintance had a particular aversion to cheese: her husband, through juke, one day during her absence from table, mixed a small quantity amongst some soup, in such a manner that ?«he could not perceive it ; she having no suspicion of the matter, ate it *i,.d was perfectly well for more than two hours after, whtn her husband

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