As we approach more modern times the detection is more frequent.

Sarah Jacobs, the Welsh fasting girl who attained such celebrity among the laity, was taken to Guy's Hospital on December 9, 1869, and after being watched by eight experienced nurses for eight days she died of starvation.

A postmortem examination of Anna Garbero of Racconis, in Piedmont, who died on May 19, 1828, after having endured a supposed fast of two years, eight months, and eleven days, revealed remarkable intestinal changes.

The serous membranes were all callous and thickened, and the canal of the sigmoid flexure was totally obliterated.

The mucous membranes were all soft and friable, and presented the appearance of incipient gangrene.
Modern Cases .-- Turning now to modern literature, we have cases of marvelous abstinence well substantiated by authoritative evidence.
Dickson describes a man of sixty-two, suffering from monomania, who refused food for four months, but made a successful recovery.
Richardson mentions a case, happening in 1848, of a man of thirty-three who voluntarily fasted for fifty-five days.