by Paul Ferris
The Times in September 1869 was not only preoccupied with reporting the failing health of Napoleon and a scandal involving Byron, but also carried correspondence from an eminent physician of the day, a Dr Fowler. He was much concerned about an extraordinary phenomenon he had witnessed in Lletherneuadd farm, a smallholding in rural Carmarthenshire. He described how the parents of a 13-year-old girl, Sarah Jacob, claimed she had fasted for a year without any appreciable deterioration in her condition. This event gave rise to much debate and argument in specialist medical papers. Undeterred by this controversy, Sarah continued her fast.
BBC Wales