MEMORY REGAINED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18022, 22 February 1922, Page 8

MEMORY REGAINED.

■ f A REMARKABLE CASE. I.FKOM ODE OWN CORRESPONDENT.] SYDNEY. Feb. 15. A remarkable, case of a man's lost memory being regained through hearing a familiar tune played on a violin has just occurred at the Sydney Hospital. On Boxjng Day a man named Charles Larfien was thrown on his head in the sand while surfing at Coogee Beach. He was admitted to the Sydney Hospital, ffnd for six weeks his memory was completely gone. He could not e'van renwm.ber his name or recognise his relatives; and then, one evening last week, everything came back to him suddenly when he heard a nurse playing on a violin a tune which was often played at his home. Larson's description of his recovery is as follows:—"I went out on to the verandah and heard someone in the nurses' quarters playing a violin, I seemed to remember the tune, but not the name of it. The night nurse did not remember W|bat it was, and for a while I was puzzled. But suddenly I ■ recalled it. It was "Sympathy." And then 1 remembered that I 1 had heard it at home. 1 seemed to hear a great crash then, as though someone had slapped two boards against my ears, and everything came back to me with a rush. Although I had been at the hospital six weeks I thought it was still Boxing Night and asked for my clothes, because I would be late home for tea. Someone told me to look over the balcony, and 1 realised that I was in hospital, and remembered everything." It was an extraordinary fact that while the patient was unable to remember any incident of bis life, he several times discussed with doctors with remarkable accuracy, Scandinavian, mythology and ancient Grecian history—subjects in which he was interested prior to the accident in the surf. Asked how he learned to smoke again' before his recovery, he explained that shortly after he was taken to the hospital someone felt the lump behind his ear, and he smelt tobacco on the man's fingers. He gripped the hand and smelt again, and his visitor, seeing what had attracted his attention, gave him a cigarette. After that he soon took to his pipe again.