Fred, thanks. I am afraid that verify_backend is more of an expensive distraction, than something actually useful.
At this point in time I will try setting both persist_backend and verify_backend to off. I am also considering changing MaxRequestsPerChild and setting it to something like 1,000. None of this really solves the problem, but it might alleviate it very considerably. Thank you very much. Your help was invaluable and assisted me in keeping a level head in dealing with this problem. .
