STONE-EATERS: A SILESIAN IN PRAGUE, 1006; FRANCOIS BATTALIA, ca. 1641;
PLATERUS' BEGGAR BOY; FATHER PAULIAN'S LITHOPHAGUS OF AVIGNON, 1760;
"THE ONLY ONE IN THE WORLD," LONDON, 1788; SPANIARDS IN LONDON, 1790; A
SECRET FOR TWO AND SIX; JAPANESE TRAINING.--FROG-SWALLOWERS: NORTON;
ENGLISH JACK; BOSCO, THE SNAKE-EATER; BILLINGTON'S PRESCRIPTION FOR
HANGMEN; CAPTAIN VEITRO.--WATER-SPOUTERS: BLAISE MANFREDE, ca. 1650;
FLORAM MARCHAND, 1650.
That the genesis of stone-eating dates back hundreds of years farther
than is generally supposed, is shown by a statement in Wanley's Wonders
of the Little World, London, 1906, Vol. II, page 58, which reads as
follows:
Anno 1006, there was at Prague a certain Silesian, who, for a small
reward in money, did (in the presence of many persons) swallow down
white stones to the number of thirty-six; they weighed very near three
pounds; the least of them was of the size of a pigeon's egg, so that I
could scarce hold them all in my hand at four times: this rash
adventure he divers years made for gain, and was sensible of no injury
to his health thereby.
The next man of this type of whom I find record lived over six hundred
years later. This was an Italian named Francois Battalia. The print
shown here is from the Book of Wonderful Characters, and is a
reproduction from an etching made by Hollar in 1641.
Doctor Bulwer, in his Artificial Changeling, tells a preposterous story
of Battalia's being born with two pebbles in one hand and one in the
other; that he refused both the breast and the pap offered him, but ate
the pebbles and continued to subsist on stones for the remainder of his
life. Doctor Bulwer thus describes his manner of feeding:
His manner is to put three or four stones into a spoon, and so putting
them into his mouth together, he swallows them all down, one after
another; then (first spitting) he drinks a glass of beer after them.
He devours about half a peck of these stones every day, and when he
clinks upon his stomach, or shakes his body, you may hear the stones
rattle as if they were in a sack, all of which in twenty-four hours are
resolved. Once in three weeks he voids a great quantity of sand, after
which he has a fresh appetite for these stones, as we have for our
victuals, and by these, with a cup of beer, and a pipe of tobacco, he
has his whole subsistence.