e third day and ceased on the tenth. In the
convalescence, the lungs were affected, he coughed, and in
expectoration raised great quantities of phlegm, and really resembled a
phthisical patient. At this time he was confined to his room with
great weakness, similar to that of a person recovering from an
asthmatic attack. The mere smell of wheat produced distressing
symptoms in a minor degree, and for this reason he could not, without
suffering, go into a mill or house where the smallest quantity of wheat
flour was kept. His condition was the same from the earliest times, and
he was laid out for dead when an infant at the breast, after being fed
with "pap" thickened with wheat flour. Overton remarks that a case of
constitutional peculiarity so little in harmony with the condition of
other men could not be received upon vague or feeble evidence, and it
is therefore stated that Waller was known to the society in which he
lived as an honest and truthful man. One of his female neighbors, not
believing in his infirmity, but considering it only a whim, put a small
quantity of flour in the soup which she gave him to eat at her table,
stating that it contained no flour, and as a consequence of the
deception he was bed-ridden for ten days with his usual symptoms. It
was also stated that Waller was never subjected to militia duty because
it was found on full examination of his infirmity that he could not
live upon the rations of a soldier, into which wheat flour enters as a
necessary ingredient. In explanation of this strange departure from the
condition of other men, Waller himself gave a reason which was deemed
equivalent in value to any of the others offered. It was as follows:
His father being a man in humble circumstances in life, at the time of
his birth had no wheat with which to make flour, although his mother
during gestation "longed" for wheat-bread. The father, being a kind
husband and responsive to the duty imposed by the condition of his
wife, procured from one of his opulent neighbors a bag of wheat and
sent it to the mill to be ground. The mother was given much uneasiness
by an unexpected delay at the mill, and by the time the flour arrived
her strong appetite for wheat-bread had in a great degree subsided.
Notwithstanding this, she caused some flour to be immediately baked
into bread and ate it, but not so freely as she had expected The bread
thus taken caused intense vomiting and made her violently and painfully
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