IN STUPOR 32 YEARS.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXVI, Issue 10480, 16 October 1912, Page 2

IN STUPOR 32 YEARS.

STRANGE AWAKENING OE A ■ WOMAN. 'For 112 years a woman lay in a ibatc of ’ torpor, being completely nsensitive to the stimulus of a pinTrick, iind now sho lius tiwo-koucu mdor strange circumstances. When i "iri of 14,"Caroline Olsson, belonging to Okuo, a small island off the loast of Sweden, complained of lobthaoho and of feeling ill, and hortly after being put to bed she ell into a state of profound stupor vhioh continued for 02 years. lor ■o years sho never spoke a word, ■xcopfc • when her mother once in ■espexation besought ncr to pray, ■rid the patient said, “Kind Jesus, ■avc pitv on me, ’ ‘ Some throe or Bnir times, says the Lancet, she Bas known to Jiavo left her bed Momentarily during that period, Bghervviso siic remained huddled up lu bod, with the clothes drawn over Eor .head. Her mother gave her Bpparently never more than two ■ups of milk in the 24 hours. When Barolinq, in 1905, was told that her mother was dead, she burst into Bjara, but otherwise her cond (tion Kraained exactly as before. Two ■ears later, in 1907, the brother who ■ad been deputed to|feed her, as tin Biot her had done, was accidentally Browned; on hearing of this • the Batiout again had a violent outburst m tears ' Then a housekeeper was Bbtained, and began to notice some Bnrious facts about the case. As Baroline was always left alone for B>mo hours in the middle of the By, it was felt that she was doing ■uch more for herself than had Hfchorto been imagined. Eventually K, April Ord, 1908, the patient BTrPWW said, “Where is mother?” K ( i when her brothers came into room in astonishment she said, ■You are not my brothers, they ■ere so small.” Yet, curiously Hiough, she did not show any sur-H-ise at seeing the housekeeper in ■e room. From that day the Ktiont’s condition became perfectly Hr.mal, and it has remained so ever Ki.ee:; Apart from complete amnesia Hr. the events ot 32 years, Caroline Hes.not differ in any way. from Ke pormai indiviual. A doctor who Hveatigated the case, states that H,,found no trace of disease or Kysical defect. The suggestion ■ made that the awakening or reKakoning of the instinct of selfas the result of the Hither’s death, was the step' that Hi! eventually to the complete Hiovery of the patient.