SLEPT FOR 49 DAYS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 24, 22 July 1911, Page 1 (Supplement)

SLEPT FOR 49 DAYS.

STRANGE CONDITION OF A RUSSIAN PRISONER. A remarkable case of protracted sleep' ing at Ekaterineslav is being closely fol olwed by the medical world (says a St. Petersburg message). The subject it /

a peasant aged 21, who is under arrest on a charge of having participated in an armed-attack made on a passenger train in 1008, when one guard was killed and artother'seriously wounded. On March 19 the young man fell into a comatose state. Eyes and moutH were closed. All efforts to restore animation were without result. After the lapse of a fortnight, during which the prisoner had no• food or drink of anj description, he got up, said a prayer, and lay down again. The prison authorities then believed that he was simulating lethargy, and were not convinced to the contrary until his apparently lifeless body was driven in a cart to the Court of Justice and examined by a special commission, including medical experts. He was then taken back to prison, where he remained until April 14, still receiving no food and showing no signs of consciousness. Eventually he was removed to the Zemstvo Hospital, where he is now lying. Artificial feeding was resorted to, with satisfactory results, and the emaciated , appearance of the patient has now changed for the better. The lower part of his body is quite nonsentient.

There arc signs that the prisoner is recovering control of his faculties,- and the hospital doctors are of opinion that although he can neither more nor speak he hears everything that is said to him. One of the experts watching the case goes so far as to maintain that the auditory sense has been active during the whole 40 days that the lethargy hag already lasted.