STONE-EATERS: A SILESIAN IN PRAGUE, 1006;FRANCOIS BATTALIA, ca.1641; PLATERUS'
BEGGAR BOY; FATHER PAULIAN'S LITHOPHAGUS
OF AVIGNON, 1760; ``THE ONLY
ONE IN THE WORLD,'' LONDON, 1788;
SPANIARDS IN LONDON, 1790; A SECRET
FOR TWO AND SIX; JAPANESE TRAINING.
--FROG-SWALLOWERS: NORTON; ENGLISH
JACK; BOSCO, THE SNAKE-EATER;
BILLINGTON'S PRESCRIPTION FOR
HANGMEN; CAPTAIN VEITRO.--WATER-
SPOUTERS: BLAISE MANFREDE, ca.1650;
FLORAM MARCHAND, 1650.
That the genesis of stone-eating dates back hundreds of years farther than is generally supposed, is shown by a statement in Wanley's Wonders of the Little World, London, 1906, Vol.II, page 58, which reads as follows:
Anno 1006, there was at Prague a certain Silesian, who, for a small reward in money, did (in the presence of many persons)swallow down white stones to the number of thirty-six; they weighed very near three pounds; the least of them was of the size of a pigeon's egg, so that Icould scarce hold them all in my hand at four times: this rash adventure he divers years made for gain, and was sensible of no injury to his health thereby.
The next man of this type of whom I find record lived over six hundred years later.
This was an Italian named Francois Battalia.
The print shown here is from the Book of Wonderful Characters, and is a reproduction from an etching made by Hollar in 1641.
Doctor Bulwer, in his Artificial Changeling, tells a preposterous story of Battalia's being born with two pebbles in one hand and one in the other; that he refused both the breast and the pap offered him, but ate the pebbles and continued to subsist on stones for the remainder of his life.Doctor Bulwer thus describes his manner of feeding:
His manner is to put three or four stones into a spoon, and so putting them into his mouth together, he swallows them all down, one after another; then (first spitting) he drinks a glass of beer after them.He devours about half a peck of these stones every day, and when he clinks upon his stomach, or shakes his body, you may hear the stones rattle as if they were in a sack, all of which in twenty-four hours are resolved.Once in three weeks he voids a great quantity of sand, after which he has a fresh appetite for these stones, as we have for our victuals, and by these, with a cup of beer, and a pipe of tobacco, he has his whole subsistence.
From a modern point of view the Doctor ``looks easy.''
The Book of Wonderful Characters continues:
Platerus speaks of a beggar boy, who for four farthings would suddenly swallow many stones which he met with by chance in any place, though they were big as walnuts, so filling his belly that by the collision of them while they were pressed, the sound was distinctly heard.Father Paulian says that a true lithophagus, or stone-eater, was brought to Avignon in the beginning of May, 1760.He not only swallowed flints an inch and a half long, a full inch broad, and half an inch thick, but such stones as he could reduce to powder, such as marble, pebbles, etc., he made up into paste, which to him was a most agreeable and wholesome food.Father Paulian examined this man with all the attention he possibly could, and found his gullet very large, his teeth exceedingly strong, his saliva very corrosive, and his stomach lower than ordinary.
This stone eater was found on Good Friday, in 1757, in a northern inhabited island, by some of the crew of a Dutch ship.He was made by his keeper to eat raw flesh with his stones; but he never could be got to swallow bread.He would drink water, wine, and brandy, which last liquor gave him infinite pleasure.He slept at least twelve hours a day, sitting on the ground with one knee over the other, and his chin resting on his right knee.He smoked almost all the time he was not asleep or not eating.Some physicians at Paris got him blooded; the blood had little or no serum, and in two hours time it became as fragile as coral.
He was unable to pronounce more than a few words, such as Oui, Non, Caillou, Bon.``He has been taught,'' adds the pious father, evidently pleased with the docility of his interesting pupil, ``to make the sign of the cross, and was baptized some months ago in the church of St.Come, at Paris.THE RESPECT HE SHOWS TO ECCLESIASTICSAND HIS READY DISPOSITION TO PLEASE
THEM, afforded me the opportunity of satisfying myself as to all these particulars; and I AM FULLY CONVINCED THAT HEIS NO CHEAT.''
Here is the advertisement of a stone-eater who appeared in England in 1788.
An Extraordinary Stone-Eater The Original STONE-EATERThe Only One in the World,Has arrived, and means to perform this, and every day (Sunday excepted) at Mr.
Hatch's, trunk maker, 404 Strand, opposite Adelphi.
STONE-EATING
and STONE-SWALLOWING
And after the stones are swallowed may be heard to clink in the belly, the same as in a pocket.
The present is allowed to be the age of Wonders and Improvements in the Arts.
The idea of Man's flying in the Air, twenty years ago, before the discovery of the use of the balloon, would have been laughed at by the most credulous! Nor does the History of Nature afford so extraordinary a relation as that of the man's eating and subsisting on pebbles, flints, tobacco pipes and mineral excrescences;but so it is and the Ladies and Gentlemen of this Metropolis and its vicinity have now an opportunity of witnessing this extraordinary Fact by seeing the Most Wonderful Phenomenon of the Age, who Grinds and Swallows stones, etc., with as much ease as a Person would crack a nut, and masticate the kernel.
This Extraordinary Stone-eater appears not to suffer the least Inconvenience from so ponderous, and to all other persons in the World, so indigestible a Meal, which he repeats from twelve at noon to seven.
Any Lady or Gentleman may bring Black Flints or Pebbles with them.
