The Welsh Fasting Girl Who Was Watched Until She Starved
In eighteen sixty-nine, a twelve-year-old Welsh girl named Sarah Jacob was subjected to a clinical watch by four London hospital nurses to test claims that she lived without food. Eight days later, she died of acute starvation under their direct observation. Her fatal ordeal exposed the tragic collision of Victorian religious belief, parental neglect, and an emerging medical establishment struggling to define what would soon be named anorexia nervosa.
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Sarah Jacob's parents claimed she survived one hundred thirteen weeks without any food or drink.
Four trained nurses strictly monitored the twelve-year-old until she starved to death in eight days.
An autopsy revealed recent fat reserves and fecal matter, proving she had eaten before surveillance began.
The parents were convicted of manslaughter, establishing a legal parental duty to feed dependent children.
Doctors faced intense public backlash for acting as passive bystanders while a child starved.
The tragedy pushed physicians to abandon fasting miracles and coin the medical term anorexia nervosa.
- 01Intro1 min
- 02The Bedside Shrine of Lletherneuadd3 min
- 03The Clinical Death Watch2 min
- 04The Evidence, the Assizes, and the Moral Failure3 min
- 05Pathologizing the Fasting Girl4 min
- 06Outro1 min
- Sarah Jacob - Wikipedia
- JACOB, SARAH (1857 - 1869), the fasting girl | Dictionary of Welsh Biography
- Sarah Jacobs - The Welsh Fasting Girl
- Sarah Jacob | Darwin Correspondence Project
- Observer review: A Wonderful Little Girl by Sian Busby
- The Welsh fasting girl - Hektoen International
- The Welsh Fasting Girl: A Morbid Spectacle
- Sarah jacob the welsh fasting girl
- The Welsh Fasting Girl - Report of the trial
- History of anorexia - Wikipedia
- pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- WITTE FINAL.pdf
- Contemporary reflections on William Gull's case studies of anorexia nervosa, 150 years on - PMC
- Anorexia Nervosa in the nineteenth century
- biblio.com
- Anorexia, 138 Years Ago
- William Withey Gull (1816-1890) | Embryo Project Encyclopedia
- Anorexia nervosa historical perspective - wikidoc
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