GREAT EATERS AND DRINKERS

Grey River Argus, 30 December 1920, Page 5

GREAT EATERS AND DRINKERS

There is a story of a jockey who. ■ifter the race for which he had beei long starving himself was run, wen' io an hotel a'-d ate a leg of mutton (writes a medical correspondent in (he London "Daife Mail"). When tin ■vaiter asked if. he would like some nveets or cheese he 'replied, "No. ] never cat sweets. But if you luivtanother leg of mutton I think I couli! manage it." •• This seems almost credible in viev of the records to be found of greal waters and drinkers. In the Transactions of the Royal Society mention is made of v boy, 1(---years old, who consumed 3731 bof food and drink in a week, and another boy iitirciin gfrom diabetes, who ate 3S4lh of fpod in six days; So great was hi:hunger that when refused food he gnawed the flesh off his own bones Dr Burroughs records in the sanu publication the case of a farm la bourcr of Stanton, near Bury, Avhom he siiAv outing a Avhole leg of veal at a meal. There was a Avonian patient in S.t Bartholomew's Hospital in 1870 whoso daily ration ..consisted of three quartern loaves, 31b of meat, and a very large quantity of vegetables. Another , extraordinary feeder was a man who ate all the time for 15 out of the 24 hours and still felt hungry. , These .amazing people arc paralleled by drinkers .of enormous quantities or I liquids. It is told of a doctor, who avuj. very fond of port, that once a patient came to him complaining of a terrible thirst. "What Avill you give me for it?" asked the patient. The doctor consulted his bank book and replied, "I Avill give you £139 10/7, and that is all I have in the world." He' would envy thn .man of whom the great. French phj^sician Trousseau records that he Avould drink 50 pints of Avinc. in a day besides a daily consumption of 2:1 pints of strong brady. Water, hoAvevcr, is the beverage of the great -drinkers. The "Medical Times," '1878, reports the 'case of fi child three years old Avho drank two pailf uls of Avater every day. At the age of 21 she married a poor cobbler, and then her allowance was four pailfuls. As Avater cost a penny a pail the husband bocame bankrupt. Glass-bloAvers are known to drink frpm 50 to 60 pints of water during a day's work arid to be nothing the Avorsc for it, but they arc beaten by n young and capable worker of Avhom ,-Dr Atkinson reports that he drank 12 gallons of Avater a day and a avllolp tubful of it during the night.