ITALIAN DOCTORS PUZZLED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18994, 16 April 1925, Page 7

ITALIAN DOCTORS PUZZLED.

AN EXTRAORDINARY CASE. GIRL'S RELIGIOUS HYSTERIA. ! STRANGE PHYSICAL RESULTS. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. (Received 8.5 p.m.) A. and N.Z. LONDON. Apl. 15. The Romo correspondent of the Daily Telegraph reports an extraordinary case of religious hysteria. The story relates to Elena Ajello, aged 25, invalid daughter of a tailor at Montalto Uffogo. The correspondent says that for the past three years this girl had suffered from emissions of blood through the pores of her skin on every Friday in March and April, especially on Good Friday. This year a party, which included the most eminent physicians in Italy, proceeded to tho village to investigate the case. They found it to be swarming with people of all classes from every part of the country. They were there to participate in what they regarded as a miracle. Exastly at noon Elena Ajello sighed and went into a trance. She became entirely unconscious, and in that state she went through tho story of Christ's death. At three o'clock the girl complained of great pain. She said her hands and feet felt as though they were nailed to a cross.' Finally she cried out in an agonised toue: "A crown of thorns is piercing my head." At that precise moment blood oozed from the girl's forehead, knees, and feet. This continued for three hours, the blood flowing copiously. The medical onlookers declared that the case defied ordinary pathological explanation. It was, they said, only to be described as a most unusual form of religious hysteria. Elena sought to enter a convent five years ago. She took the novice's veil, but was not allowed to continue owing to illness.

The girl became an invalid and lias spent the last, three years in bed. She has been constantly absorbed in religious contemplation.