"WHO AM I?"

Auckland Star, Volume XXXV, Issue 38, 13 February 1904, Page 2 (Supplement)

"WHO AM I?"

"Since Bill Jones came Into 'is bit o' splosh. 'E dunno where 'c .are!" Was a few years ago a favourite street ditty, and one could understand Bill's frame of mind. The sudden and unexpected acquisition of what to the acquiring individual is "wealth beyond the dreams of avarice" is very apt to cause mental aberration of some sort. Nowadays, however, sudden obliterations of memory for which no adequate cause can be assigned are very common. The latest case is that of a highly respectable medical man who was found wandering aimlessly about the streets of Birmingham on Christmas Eve. For a period of forty-eight hours this gentleman, though fully conscious of all that occurred from the time he was taken into custody by a suspicious policeman until his release, was utterly unable to recall the past. He could not even give tongue to his own name, and unfortunately there was nothing in his pockets or on his person to give any clue to his identity. At first the police authorities as usual attributed his mental condition to an undue familiarity with the flowing bowl, but undei examination it became clear that drink had nothing to do with the case, and lie was therefore sent to the local hospital to be taken care of. There medical men found no signs of any disease that would account for the wanderer's condition, and verbal examination and suggestion alike failed to elicit any information from the patient as to his identity or his place of residence. He had a dim sort of recollection that lie had once lived at Peterborough, hut in reality nothing of the past remained to him. On Saturday he began to recall happenings of long ago, and bit by bit his memory returned, until at length hs was able to inform the hospital authorities who he was and where he lived. He was taken to the address in the suburbs he indicated, and it was then discovered that he had left his rooms early in the afternoon of December 24th, and had walked into the city, where all consciousness of his identity left him. Save the fact that he had recently had a severe illness, he himself can offer no reason for the sudden break in his chain of memory.