Medicine: Tolstoian Suicide

To the earthy, uncomprehending Breton peasants of La Motte, France, Dr. Pierre Etienne Meral, Russian-born, onetime personal physician to King Menelek II of Abyssinia, announced that he intended to commit suicide. A melancholy Tolstoian who could not conscientiously use violence on himself, he decided to starve himself to death. Last week, after 60 days of debilitating hunger, he succeeded.

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