Reasonings, persuasions, beseechings, all went for nothing; they produced no effect; the lying went tranquilly on.

Other remedies were tried, but they failed.

There is a tradition that success was finally accomplished by whipping.

I think the Record says so, but if it does it is because the Record is incomplete.

Whipping was indeed tried, and was faithfully kept up during two or three weeks, but the results were merely temporary; the reforms achieved were discouragingly brief.
Fortunately for Susy, an incident presently occurred which put a complete stop to all the mother's efforts in the direction of reform.
This incident was the chance discovery in Darwin of a passage which said that when a child exhibits a sudden and unaccountable disposition to forsake the truth and restrict itself to lying, the explanation must be sought away back in the past; that an ancestor of the child had had the same disease, at the same tender age; that it was irremovable by persuasion or punishment, and that it had ceased as suddenly and as mysteriously as it had come, when it had run its appointed course.