A CASE OF TRANCE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 11947, 22 January 1901, Page 2

A CASE OF TRANCE.

1 % the Royal Infirmary, Newcastle-on-Tyne, Dr Drummontl, one of the leading physicians of the city, gave a demonstration in the presence of a large number of doctors with regard to a case of (ranee in the institution which has beon followed with much interest by the medical profession.- The subject was a clerk, belonging to Heburn-on-Tyne, who is 26 years of age, and has always been of a re3erved disposition, with a tendency to depression, and who was regarded by his associates .as. somewhat eccentric. At the end of March last he sank into a stnto of profound shipor or trance, and was taken to the Newcastle Infirmary, where lie lay in that condition without moving his .legs or arms or showing evidence of knowledge of the outer world for upwards of seven months. During all that time he never spoke, and was supposed by hie attendants to bo profoundly unconscious. Evidence, however, has. been forthcoming which shows ihtit ■ consciousness was not entirely in abeyance, inasmuch as when he. recovered conEoiousness he • recognised people who had been about during the height of his period of trance, when he lay as helpless as a log, and . when the strongest electrical stimulus, which would have given ■intense pain to an ordinary individual, failed to elicit tho slightest response from him. The case is one which is described in medical honks as anergic Btupor or trance. He was fed on six pints of milk, four pints of beef tea, and two eggs daily, and he was massaged, the muscles nibbed daily, and the joints freely moved. Ho Ims now so far recovered that the doctors believe he will regain his normal condition. In his conversation he shows that- lie rceollects pvonts which occurred months back during his period of tranco, one of which wan the dentil of his brother, of which ho was told, although at the timo ho gave no sign that he understood what was/said to. him. 1