"For a wager he would eat a whole sheep or whole pig."

A story about dietary anomalies, which appeared in the January 30, 1887 edition of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle and was originally published in Good Housekeeping. An excerpt:

“Elizabeth Charlotte, the Duchess of Orleans, writing under the date of December 5, 1718, says: ‘The late king, monsieur the Dauphin, and the Duc de Berri were enormous eaters. I have often seen the King eat four plates of different kinds of soup, a whole pheasant, a partridge, a dish of salad, two thick slices of ham, mutton flavored with garlic, a plateful of pastry and finish his repast with fruit and hard boiled eggs.’ There was a good old German from Wittemberg, where my Lord Hamlet attended the university, who had a fine faculty for storing away provender. His case is well attested. For a wager he would eat a whole sheep or whole pig or put out of sight a bushel of cherries, stones and all. He lived until he was 80 years of age, a great portion of the time supporting himself by exhibiting the peculiarity of his appetite, which, to say the least, must have been a very eccentric one. Thus, he would chew glass, earthenware and flint into small fragments. He had an especial preference for caterpillars, mice and birds, and when these were not procurable he would content himself with mineral substances. Once he put down his maw and gull a pen, the ink and the sand pounce and he would have gobbled the inkstand, too, had he not been restrained.

Dr. Copland, in speaking of two children who had wonderful appetites, the youngest 7 seven years old being the worst, said: ‘The quantity of food devoured by her was astonishing. Everything that could be laid hold of, even in its raw state, was seized upon most greedily. Among other articles, an uncooked rabbit, half a pound of candies and some butter, were taken at one time. The mother stated that this little girl, who was apparently in good health otherwise, took more food if she could possibly obtain it, than the rest of her family, consisting of six besides herself.’

Instances of depraved appetite are numerous, and men have been known to swallow fire, swords, spiders, flies, toads, serpents, cotton, hair, paper, wood, cinders, sand, earth, clay, chalk, flint, musket balls and gold watches. One man could swallow billiard balls.”