CONTINENTAL SENSATIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 149, 24 June 1911, Page 17

CONTINENTAL SENSATIONS.

FORTY-NINE SATS' TRANCE. A remarkable case of protracted lethargy is reported from EkuierimjcsLiv, and is being closely followed by ithe medical world, ■writes the St. Petersburg correspondent ol a london daily. The subject is a peasant, aged SO, who is under arrest on the charge of having participated in an armed attack made on a passenger train in 190S, when, one guard was killed and another seriously wounded.

Ho far back as iMarch 18 the young man fell into a comatose stale. Byes and mouth, iwere closed. All effort* to restore animation were without result. After a lapse of a fortnight, during which, the prisoner had no food or driak of any description, he got up, 6aid a prayer, and lay down again. The prison authorities believed that he was simnJating lethargy, and were not convinced to-the contrary until his apparently lifeless body was driven in a cart xo the Court of Justice and examined by a special commission, including medical experts.

He was then taken hack, .to prison, -where he remained until April 14, still receiving no food and showing no signs of consciousness. Eventually he was removed to the Zemstvo Hospital, where he is now lying. Artificial feeding Tvas resorted to •with satisfactory results, and the emaciated appearance of the patient has now changed for the better. The lower part of his body is quite non-sentient.

There are signs that the prisoner is recovering control of his faculties, and the hospital doctors are of opinion that, although he can neither move nor speak, he hears everything that is said to hini. One of the experts watching the ease goes so far as to maintain that the auditory sense has been active during the whole forty-nine days that the lethargy has already lasted.