MAN WITH HALF A BRAIN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 14925, 24 February 1912, Page 2 (Supplement)

MAN WITH HALF A BRAIN.

A Swedish soldier was .shot a few months ago in the head, and half his brain was blown out, in consequence of which ho lost part, of his mental powers. This event (writes a Stockholm correspondent) has como to the ears of American journalists, who are giving the most extraordinary accounts of it. For instance, they say" that ho can see a flea but not a horse, that he can hear a whisper but not a cannon shot, that ho can understand English but not Swedish, that ho knows the first half of his name but not the second, that ho hates the smell of violets but loves the fragranco of onions. The facts regarding this young man are in themselves so interesting"; that they need no exaggeration. After the shot ho lay unconscious for a fortnight, and when he regained consciousness he had completely lost his memory, and could not even remember his own immo. Gradually his memory has returned, and ho recollected what had happened in his childhood. And now he remembers everything up to the third day before the shot. His general health is good, and his temper also. His sensorial nerves are destroyed, and his sense of sight is distinctly damaged. Ho has, for instance, lost the power of seeing anything at the side of him : ho is obliged to look straight at an object. Helias also partly lost tho capacity of reading and writing, and lost the power of combining letters and this he will never regain, for which reason he will never bo able to take up work in which writing and reading are necessary. The State will certainly try to lessen the consequences of the accident, which happened during his term of service.