"THE SLEEPER OF THENELLES."

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 11544, 1 December 1900, Page 2 (Supplement)

"THE SLEEPER OF THENELLES."

HAS SLEPT FOR SEVENTEEN YEARS. Marguerite Bouykxval has been asleep 17 years. If she ever wakes it will be but, to die immediately, the scientists of France believe.

Her mother, an aged peasant woman, walks on tiptoe and speaks in whispers lest the sleeper wake.

"The Sleeper of Theneiles" she is called. Thenelles is an old-world little place in the bottom of a picturesque valley 30 miles from Saint Quentin.

It is a one-storey building of cement trimmed with red brick. It consists of two rooms, both darkened with heavy shutters. In one lies " the sick woman," as the peasants call her; in the other are herded her father, mother, two brothers, and two sisters.

If nature had not put Marguerite Bouyenval to sleep the law would have put her to death. She killed her own child, after being deserted by her soldier lover.

The crime was discovered. Gendarmes broke into the cottage and advanced upon the shrieking girl. She fell at their feet, and never since have her eyes been open. Unwilling to try to execute a sleeping girl the law turned her over to the doctors, and the doctors, aftei vainly striving to wake her, restored her to her mother.

The sleeper of Thenelles takes no food, because her jaws are set. Her mother injects daily for nourishment a preparation recommended by a physician at the commencement of the long sleep. Whether or not it helps to maintain life cannot be determined.

Among Marguerite' Bouyenval's many scientific visitors is the famous Charcot, of Paris. He has made many experiments, without throwing much light on the mystery of her condition —whether it be catalepsy, lethargy, or true sleep. One important fact he has discovert:-; — that all her digestive organs are destro- -A. The inference he draws from this is u:-. were she to wake she would speedily j..:. 3 from starvation.

She lies resting one cheek on her pillow — always the same cheek. Her face is long and yellow. The bone cavities of the erea are shaded in blue, and the whites of the eyes gleam beneath the drooping lips. There is something ratlike and ghastly about the waxen mouth.

The breathing is so gentle that it makes no sound, nor any visible movement. A faint pulsation of the heart may be detected with the hand. The limbs are flexible, and will remain wherever placed. Poor old Mere Bouyenval changes the bed linen and the white peasant's cap on her daughter's head; and she moves with infinite care lest the sleeper wake to die.