LOSS OF MEMORY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20548, 25 October 1928, Page 19

LOSS OF MEMORY.

RETURNED MAN’S RELAPSE. QUESTION OP RESPONSIBILITY. {Special to Daily Times.) AUCKLAND, October 24. A remarkable case illustrative of the fact that many returned soldiers are only now feeliqg the full effect of war service has been brought under notice in connection with the movement to have some provision made by the Government ■for dealing with cases of distress. A man who left New Zealand in the Second Contingent, and served on Gallipoli, in Prance, and elsewhere, returned to Auckland just before the armistice was signed, having been treated in an English soldiers’ hospital for war injuries over a long period. He recovered sufficiently to resume the work on which he had been employed prior to the war, and being a good tradesman and a steady man he was able to save a little money. About 12 months ago ho noticed that attacks of depression were very frequent, and he consulted a doctor, who advised him to take a long holiday. This he was able to do, and after a good spell in the south he returned to Auckland. On the day of the return flight of the Bristol planes he was motored to Mangere by two friends, and there the excitement of the flight, no doubt accentuated by a recollection of war incidents, caused a collapse, which which ho did not recover. The patient was conveyed to a private hospital, where it was seen that he had lost all sense of time and place. At one moment ,he was in Hornchurch, and the next with his brothers and sisters in Auckland. He believed himself to bo in a soldiers’ hospital under military rule, and he was a very quiet and obedient patient. He said there was something wrong with his head, but he would be all right in a day or two. His case, however, proved to be much more serious, and it is questionable whether he will ever recover. • In the meantime his small savings are being absorbed, and if ho should ever I again bo able to work he would most