ABNORMAL APPETITES.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 14397, 3 January 1911, Page 8

ABNORMAL APPETITES.

Some remarkable instances of abnormal appetites were mentioned by Dr. \\\ Soltau Fenwick in an address before the Tiondou Institute of Hygiene a few weeks ago. The human stomach, he said, was an organ peculiarly susceptible to education, and it could he taught to perform all kinds of unnatural and unnecessary work. There* was an authentic caw* of a little girl who had to be watched constantly in order to prevent her eating all the household greeds. On one occasion she was left alone for a abort time, and she consumed a raw codfish, a large quantity of butter, and several pounds of candles. A boy, who was afflicted with an apparently insatiable hunger, had eaten ten pounds of raw meat, and another lad who had been placed in confinement had eaten practically all In's clothing. Many people, continued J)r. Fenwick, possessed an extraordinary relish for common salt, mid very often the result was a great increase in weight. A voting woman who was in the habit of devouring amazing quantities of salt had been found to add ten pounds to her weight in twentyfour hours, and the penalty for u continuance of the practice would have been death from dropsy. Young children often acquired abnormal tastes, such as a desire to cat paper. The eating of hair was a curious habit that sometimes caused the dentil of girls, through the format ion of large halls of hair in the stomach. People who entertained the public by wallowing swords and eating glass often continued their curious habits for many yeans and were not able to abstain. Dr. Fenwick mentioned the cose of a seaman who could seldom resist the temptation to chew up and swallow a glass tumbler after he had drunk its contents. Even more remarkable was the case of a hnv, who begged, lairrowed and stole watches in order that Ik* might swallow them. The ordinary man's habit of eating twice as much food ns he needs scenic hardly a matter for serious reproach in comparison with these perverted appetites.