WITHOUT FOOD FOR A MONTH.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 9143, 10 May 1901, Page 4

WITHOUT FOOD FOR A MONTH.

BREST, March 24. A very remarkable instance of a human being surviving an involuntary fast of twenty-eight days is furnished by the case of Corporal Andre Desrats, a young man of twenty-six, belonging to", file 2nd Regiment of Colonial Infantry here. This morning some men on their way to work were passing the Route St. Marc, when they heard plaintive cries proceeding from some excavations which had been made m the course of mining work m the mountain which overshadows this thoroughfare. They explored a number of the excava-. tions, and eventually, at the bottom of one of them, nearly a nundred feet deep, came upon Corporal Desrats, pale, livid, and with haggard eyes. He was so weak j that he could hardly artioulate a word, and his body had been gnawed by vermin. The workmen carried him to the surface and brought him to the hospital. There the corporal told his story. On February 24 he accidentally fell into the pit, where he had been imprisoned up. to the day of hia deliverance, without anything to eat or drink. His condition is very serious, but he is receiving every attention, and the doctors have hopes of preserving his life.