Chapter V: Appendix

The following letter embraces the proposition made to Miss Fancher, to which allusion is made in the text:

TO THE EDITOR OF THE HERALD:--

I have read the letter of Professor Henry M. Parkhurst, published in
a recent issue of the HERALD, relative to the "mind reading" or
clairvoyance of Miss Mollie Fancher, of Brooklyn, and it does not
satisfy me that the young lady in question possesses any such power.
It would have been very easy for her to have opened the envelope
without disturbing the seal and to have read the contents. Now,
there has been a great deal of talk about Miss Fancher's case. I
have received just fifty-seven letters asking me to investigate it,
and the press has reiterated the invitation over and over again. I
have stated very explicitly that I regard the whole matter as a
humbug of the most decided kind, but I have never asserted the
impossibility of the young lady's alleged performances. On the
contrary, I hold nothing to be absolutely impossible outside the
domain of mathematics. But possibilities and realities are very
different things, and I certainly will not accept as true any such
phenomena as those asserted to have been associated with Miss
Fancher unless they are proven.

I have already declared my readiness to investigate Miss Fancher,
and, a few days since, in the _Sun_, proposed a test which will be
perfectly satisfactory to me and many others who, at present, are in
accordance with me in my estimation of this young lady. Permit me
now to state it definitely, specifically, and once for all. I will
place a certified check for a sum of money exceeding $1,000 inside
of a single paper envelope. I will lay the package on a table in the
room in which she is. If she chooses she may take it in her hands
and place it in contact with any part of her body. I will allow her
half an hour to describe the check. If she reads it--number, date,
on whom drawn, amount, signature, etc.--accurately, she may have the
check as her own property, or I will give the amount expressed in
the check, in her name to any charitable institution she may
designate, or otherwise dispose of it in accordance with her
wishes.

The only conditions I exact are these:--

_First_--That the experiment be conducted in my presence and in that
of two other physicians, members of the New York Neurological
Society, whom I will bring with me as witness simply, and who will
not interfere in any way with the test.

_Second_--That the envelope shall at no time pass out of our sight.

If Miss Fancher succeeds in this test I will admit that heretofore
in my denunciations of such performances as hers I have been in
error, and that there is a force in nature which ought to be
investigated. I will pay the money not only without chagrin, but
with great satisfaction, and will consider that I have received full
value.

If she fails, as I am quite sure she will, I shall not hesitate to
continue to denounce her as an imposition in this as well as in her
assumed abstinence from food.

A word further in regard to this last matter. I know something about
"fasting girls" and their frauds, not excepting the sad case of poor
little Sarah Jacob. But I will make this additional proposition:--If
Miss Fancher will allow herself to be watched, day and night, for
one month, by relays of members of the New York Neurological
Society, I will give her $1,000 if at the end of that month she has
not in the meantime taken food voluntarily or as a forced measure to
save her from dying of starvation, the danger of this last
contingency to be judged of by her family physician, Dr. Speir.
These offers to remain open for acceptance till twelve o'clock M.,
December 31st. If not taken up by that time, let us hear no more in
support of Miss Fancher's mind reading or clairvoyance, or living
for a dozen or more years without food.

WILLIAM A. HAMMOND, M.D.

_43 West Fifty-Fourth Street, New York, Dec. 12th, 1878._

Transcriber's Note:

Hyphenation and punctuation have been standardised. Variant
spellings have been retained. Minor typographical errors have been
corrected without note, whilst significant amendments have been
listed below:

p. 3, 'Nicholas' amended to _Nicolas_
p. 5, 'Aquaintoin' amended to _Aquitaine_
p. 5, 'predominent' amended to _predominant_
p. 6, 'Geraldus Bucoldianus' amended to _Gerardus Bucoldianus_
p. 7, 'f[oe]ces' amended to _faeces_
p. 7, 'developes' amended to _develops_
p. 7, fn. 4, '{Pasateseseon}' amended to _{Paratereseon}_
p. 7, fn. 4, added _rararum_: 'medicarum, _rararum_, novarum'
p. 7, fn. 4, 'monstrasarum' amended to _monstrosarum_
p. 8, '1567' amended to _1597_
p. 9, fn. 7, 'chirurgicae' amended to _chirurgicarum_
p. 15, 'Anne Jones' amended to _Ann Jones_
p. 16, 'f[oe]cal' amended to _faecal_
p. 26, 'f[oe]ces' amended to _faeces_
p. 31, 'Cardinal Carrafa' amended to _Cardinal Carafa_
p. 40, 'Farenheit' amended to _Fahrenheit_
p. 41, fn. 13, 'Rapport Medicale' amended to _Rapport Medical_
p. 41, fn. 13, added _de_: 'medecine _de_ Belgique'
p. 44, 'ecstacy' amended to _ecstasy_
p. 44, added _of_: 'direction _of_ M. le Cure'
p. 46, 'fecal' amended to _faecal_
p. 47, 'stigmatisations' amended to _stigmatizations_
p. 48, 'fortell' amended to _foretell_
p. 48, 'marvelous' amended to _marvellous_
p. 58, 'is' amended to _it_: 'that _it_ is stated'
p. 58, 'Dr. Spier' amended to _Dr. Speir_
p. 60, 'assimulated' amended to _assimilated_
p. 60, 'alchohol' amended to _alcohol_
p. 62, 'Bergemolletta' amended to _Bergemoletto_
p. 62, 'breath' amended to _breadth_
p. 62, 'Belguim' amended to _Belgium_
p. 63, fn. 18, 'medicine' amended to _medecine_
p. 64, 'palid' amended to _pallid_
p. 64, fn. 22, 'Nouvreau' amended to _Nouveau_
p. 64, fn. 22, 'medicine' amended to _medecine_
p. 67, 'messentery' amended to _mesentery_
p. 67, 'their' amended to _there_
p. 67, 'hemorrhage' amended to _haemorrhage_
p. 68, 'Chosset' amended to _Chossat_
p. 69, fn. 26, 'medicine' amended to _medecine_
p. 71, 'her's' amended to _hers_
p. 71, 'injestion' amended to _ingestion_
p. 76, 'Sarah Jacobs' amended to _Sarah Jacob_
p. 76, 'Dr. Spier' amended to _Dr. Speir_

The page reference in fn. 21 (p. 64) was omitted in the original text.

End of Project Gutenberg's Fasting Girls, by William Alexander Hammond