In the Victorian era, there were many fads which, by today’s standards, seem rather strange.

For a while, Victorian society was obsessed with fasting girls. A fasting girl was usually a pre-adolescent young woman who claimed to be able to survive indefinitely without consuming any food or nourishment. Many of these girls also claimed to have special powers.

Such girls were regarded as miracles and their fasting as a sign of sanctity.

More recently, historians have said that the phenomenon is an early example of anorexia nervosa.

One of the most famous fasting girls was Sarah Jacob, who was born in 1857 in a small village in Carmarthenshire. At the age of nine, she fell ill with convulsions, and soon after stopped eating altogether.

As Sarah continued to fast, news of her condition spread through her village. She might have remained little more than a local curiosity, had the village vicar not written to the national newspapers.

Sarah became famous almost overnight. People travelled from far afield, often bringing gifts and money, just to get a glimpse of her.

It is unclear exactly how Sarah created such a successful ruse. Some claim it was her idea; others that it was her parents’. Others accused her sister of feeding her, passing titbits from her mouth when they kissed.

As Sarah reached maturity despite her lack of food, people began to suspect fraud. A doctor from Guy’s Hospital decided to organise a vigil and six nurses were brought in to conduct a 24-hour watch on the girl.

If Sarah asked for food the nurses were to give it to her, but otherwise they were to do nothing.

Sarah lay dying in her bed, unwilling to admit to having lied, while the nurses watched and made notes.

After four or five days, Sarah lapsed into semi-consciousness. On December 12, 1869, she died.

An autopsy was held at an inn nearby, during which the bones of a small bird or fish were found in Sarah’s stomach. Clearly, she had eaten something.

Sarah’s parents were subsequently convicted of manslaughter and spent 12 and six months respectively in Swansea prison.

Although fasting girls are often attributed to being a Victorian phenomenon, Hertfordshire had its own fasting girl centuries earlier, in Tudor times.

Jane Stretton was born in the Hertfordshire town of Ware in 1649. Her story is also tied up with the witchcraft craze.

Her father, Thomas, lost a valuable Bible and went to his neighbour, a cunning man, for help. But the man refused to tell him where the Bible was. Thomas angrily berated the man for refusing to help him.

A month later, the cunning man’s wife came to the Strettons’ home and asked Jane for a drink, which she gladly gave.

Soon after, Jane fell ill with violent fits. For six months, she did not eat.

Many believed her problems were due to a witch’s curse rather than a miracle, but as reports spread of her strange condition many people from nearby towns and villages came to see her.

It is not known what happened to Jane, but it is presumed that she recovered from her condition.

Jane, and others like her, set the stage for many other ‘miraculous’ fasting girls in the centuries that followed.

The fad was not just confined to England; it also spread across the pond to America.

Mary J. Fancher was known as the ‘Brooklyn Enigma’. Following two accidents that robbed her of the ability to see, touch, taste and smell, Mary stopped eating and claimed to have the power to predict events as well as being able to read, though she was blind.

Mary’s claims of abstinence from food lasted for 14 years. Her claims, however, were never verified.

When 19-year-old Josephine Marie Bedard claimed she had gone months without eating, two different museums in Boston wanted to put her on display.

However, in 1889 a local physician claimed that she had found a half-eaten doughnut in Bedard’s pocket. The same physician later claimed that she left three pieces of fried potato in Bedard’s room, and then left. When she returned, one piece was missing. The speculation aroused by these claims ruined Bedard’s credibility.

The obsession with fasting girls proved to be just another fad, however, and people lost interest towards the end of the Victorian era.