h, by professional
advice, he stopped the habit on the forty-second day. Three or four
times a day he took a powder made of herbs to which he naturally
attributed his power of prolonging life without food. Succi remained in
a room in which he kept the temperature at a very high point. In
speaking of Succi's latest feat a recent report says: "It has come to
light in his latest attempt to go for fifty days without food that he
privately regaled himself on soup, beefsteak, chocolate, and eggs. It
was also discovered that one of the 'committee,' who were supposed to
watch and see that the experiment was conducted in a bona fide manner,
'stood in' with the faster and helped him deceive the others. The
result of the Vienna experiment is bound to cast suspicion on all
previous fasting accomplishments of Signor Succi, if not upon those of
his predecessors."

Although all these modern fasters have been accused of being jugglers
and deceivers, throughout their fasts they showed constant decrease in
weight, and inspection by visitors was welcomed at all times. They
invariably invited medical attention, and some were under the closest
surveillance; although we may not implicitly believe that the fasts
were in every respect bona fide, yet we must acknowledge that these men
displayed great endurance in their apparent indifference for food, the
deprivation of which in a normal individual for one day only causes
intense suffering.

Anomalies of Temperature.--In reviewing the reports of the highest
recorded temperatures of the human body, it must be remembered that no
matter how good the evidence or how authentic the reference there is
always chance for malingering. It is possible to send the index of an
ordinary thermometer up to the top in ten or fifteen seconds by rubbing
it between the slightly moistened thumb and the finger, exerting
considerable pressure at the time. There are several other means of
artificially producing enormous temperatures with little risk of
detection, and as the sensitiveness of the thermometer becomes greater
the easier is the deception.

Mackenzie reports the temperature-range of a woman of forty-two who
suffered with erysipelatous inflammation of a stump of the leg.
Throughout a somewhat protracted illness, lasting from February 20 to
April 22, 1879, the temperature many times registered between 108
degrees and 111 degrees F. About a year later she was again troubled
with the stump, and this time the