A MAN OF NO FEELING.

Otago Witness, Issue 3383, 15 January 1919, Page 54

A MAN OF NO FEELING.

SINGULAR CANADIAN SOLDIER. The remarkable case of a Breton sailor who possesses no sense of touch, pain, heat, taste, or smell and yet who is otherwise apparently a well-developed man, perfectly sound mentally, is described by Dr E. D. Roberts in the Lancet. The man, who is 37 years of age, and enlisted in the Canadian army in 1916, was admitted to hospital .at Aldershot last June for an attack of mumps,' and it was then that this absence of all sensation was first noted. All sense of pain is missing. In October, 1916, in Quebec, he underwent a radical operation without anaesthetic of any kind, and he was totally unconscious of any sensation either of "pain or touch. Corroboration of this is to be found in the plenitude of scars of wounds and burns which he has inflicted on himself either for bets or to astonish the onlookers. Dr Roberts states that he has himself seen the man, on more thanone occasion, hold a burning match against the skin of his arm for 10 to 15 seconds, and then unconcernedly pick off the charred epidermis. One of the compensations of this remarkable physical state is that he never suffers from headache, toothache, abdo-

minal or other visceral-pain of any description. Thermal sensation, also, is completelyabsent. When the man plaeed his fingers in water so hot a 9 to raise a blister there ■was a slight convulsive movement of the hand, and he stated he was conscious of what he described as an electric shock, saying that he remembered feeling such a sensation when he was a boy. But he affirmed that the feeling was not painful. Knows Neither Hunger nor Thirst— Another remarkable manifestation is his inability to make any movement with his arms if his eyes are closed, for he says he cannot tell if his arms are moving or not, and all he can accomplish is a slight convulsive twitching of the hands and arms. On the other hand, if when standing upright with closed eyes, he is told to walk towards the observer he does so without trouble. He is also a good swimmer, which is difficult to reconcile with his apparent incapacity to move his arms when his eyes are closed. He appears ignorant of the meaning of fatigue, and asserts that the only means-by which he is made aware of his failing strength under any intense or prolonged effort is by his falling to the ground. He has absolutely no sense of taste, and, as everything comes alike to him, he eats anything as the fancy takes him. On one occasion he was found to haye consumed a lump of bathbrick about the size of a hen's egg that a hospital orderly had inadvertently left in his way. He states that he is in the habit of eating uncooked—when he can get hold of them. — such animals as rats, mice, dog, or serpent. It appears that he is never conscious of hunger or thirst. It was not practicable under the circumstances to put this statement to the test, but he relates that for a bet he once refrained from food and drink for eight days and nights. Finally, he seems to be without most of the common emotions. He is without family affection —the fact that he believed his mother to be dying in no way disturbed him. He makes neither friends nor enemies. He has no love of country or home. But he would appear to be a smart and efficient soldier, and takes a pride in it. He was always very active, ready, and willing to help in hospital duties.