The beginning of May, 1760, was brought to Avignon, a true lithophagus
or stone-eater. He not only swallowed flints of 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, &c. he made up into paste,
which was to him a most agreeable and wholesome food. I examined this
man with all the attention I possibly could; I found his gullet very
large, his teeth exceedingly strong, his saliva very corrosive, and his
stomach lower than ordinary, which I imputed to the vast number of
flints he had swallowed, being about five and twenty, one day with
another.
Upon interrogating his keeper, he told me the following particulars.
“This stone-eater,” says he, “was found three years ago in a northern
inhabited island, by some of the crew of a Dutch ship, on Good Friday.
Since I have had him, I make him eat raw flesh with his stones; I could
never get him to swallow bread. He will drink water, wine, and brandy;
which last liquor gives him infinite pleasure. He sleeps at least twelve
hours in a day, sitting on the ground with one knee over the other, and
his chin resting on his right knee. He smokes almost all the time he is
not asleep, or is not eating.” The keeper also tells me, that some
physicians at Paris got him blooded; that the blood had little or no
serum, and in two hours’ time became as fragile as coral.
This stone-eater hitherto is unable to pronounce more than a few words,
_Oui_, _non_, _caillou_, _bon_. I showed him a fly through a microscope:
he was astonished at the size of the animal, and could not be induced to
examine it. He has been taught to make the sign of the cross, and was
baptized some months ago in the church of St. Côme, at Paris. The
respect he shows to ecclesiastics, and his ready disposition to please
them, afforded me the opportunity of satisfying myself as to all these
particulars; and I am fully convinced that he is no cheat.[86]
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