ASLEEP FOR 20 YEARS.

Manawatu Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 7757, 6 July 1903, Page 4

ASLEEP FOR 20 YEARS.

AWAKES ONLY TO DIE. Paris, May 28—Marguerite Boyenval, of Thenelles, near St. Quenfcis, who had been in cataleptic state since May 21,1883, awakened on Wednesday. For some time past she had been suffering from phthisis, and it is believed that the effect of this malady on her system conduced to her reawakening. She moved her hand on Saturday for the first time and groaned slightly. When Dv Charlier took hold of her arm she said " You arepinchinffme," and subsequently answered to "questions by " Yes " "No." She was, however, in a state of the greatest weakness, and gradually sank, dying yesterday morning at half-past nine. Marguerite Boyenval's lethargywas caused by fright. She had had a child, which died shortly after its birth, under circumstances which led to the opening of a judical investigation. One day in 1883, while Marguerite was ironing a neighbour said to her :— " The gendarmes are coming fcoarrest you!" Marguerite had series of fits and gradually fell into her long slumber. Marguerite Boyenval was about thirty-six years old, and was a simple French peasant girl, her mother being the wife of a mason who abandoned her,, shortly after marriage. A child was born to Marguerite in May, 1883. The j babe died a few days latter, and rumours were spread that she had murdered it. The police determined to investigate the matter, but Marguerite sank into her sleep before they began. Dr Charlier had charge of the case from the beginning. In 1896 the girl was described as being as white as 8. statute, and as corpselike as a mummy, her body wasted away almost to a 'skeleton, and her bones seeming to be covered with parchment instead of skin. The body was rigid, and only the pulse beats showed that .she was alive. Life was sustained' by washing the girl's body in milk every day and pouring a few drops of milk or spirits into the sleepers mouth through a reed. The mother allowed anyone "to see her for a small fee. ' Many prominent physicians .visited the patient during her twenty years sleep.