94

lian’s Diftionnaire Phyfique, under (be article Dirge/lion.

HE beginning of May, 1760, was brought to Avignon, a true Lithopagus, or (lone - eater. This not only fwallowed flints of an inch and a half long, a full inch broad, and half an inch thick ; but fnch fiones as he could reduce to powder, fuch as marbles, pebbles, &c. he made up into palte, which was to him a molt agreeable and wholefome food. I examined this man with all the attention l pollibly could. I found his gullet very large, his teeth exceeding ftrong, his faliva very corrofive, and his fiomach lower than ordinary, which I imputed to the valt number of Hints he had lwallowed, being about five-and-twenty one day with an- other.

Upon interrogating his keeper, he told me the following particu- lars: This fione-eater, fays he, was found three years ago in a northern uninhabited ifland, by fome -of the crew ofa Dutch fhip, on Good Friday. Since I have had him, I make him eat raw flefh with his fiones: Icould never get him to fwallow bread. He will idrink water, wine, and brandy; which lall liquor gives him infinite fpleafnre. He lleeps at leall twelve hours in a day, fitting on the ground with one knee over the other, and his chin refling on his right knee. He fmokes almofi all the time he is not afleep, or eat- ing. The flints he has fwallowed he voids fomewhat corroded and di- minilhcd in weight, the reft of his cxcrements refemble mortar. The keeper alfo tells me, that fome phy- ftcian at Paris got him blooded; that the blood had little or no fe-

6

ANNUAL REGISTER, 176g:

rum, and in two hours became as

fragil as coral. If this fact be

true, it is manifelt that the molt di-

luted part of the {tony juice mull

be converted into chyle. This

ftone-eater, hitherto is unable to

pronounce more than a very few

words, Oai, nor: caittau, ban. I

lhewed him a fly through a micro-

fcope ; he was altonifhed at the fize

of the animal, and couldlnot be in-

duced to examine it. He has been

taught to make the fign of the. crofs, and was baptized fome months

ago in the church of St. Come at

Paris. The refpect he fhews to ec-

clefiafiics, and his ready difpofi-

tion to pleafe them, afford me the

opportunity of fatisfying myfelf as to all thefe particulars; and I

am fully convinced that he is no cheat.

An extraordinary in/Iance of Old flge: from Graingefs Biogra- phical Hiltory.

H E N R Y Jenkins lived to the furprizing age of 169. An account of this old man, by Mrs. Anne Savile, is printed in the third volume of the “ Philofophical “ Tranfaélzions,” p. 3o8.—This lady informs us, that he remember- etl the battle of Flowden- Field,

which was fought on the 9th ofSep- -

tember, 1513 ; that he had “fworn “ in chancery and other courts to “ above 14o years memory;” and that there is a record preferved in the king's remembrancer’s oflice, in the exchequer, by which it appears, that “ Henry Jenkins, of Ellerton “ upon Swale, labourer, aged 157, “ was produced and depofed as a.

“ witnefs.”_ In the laft century of his