AN EXTRAORDINARY CASE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2474, 9 March 1893, Page 4

AN EXTRAORDINARY CASE.

The man who has lost his memory at Melbourne continues to be a subject of great public interest. It was the !)th of February when he walked into the Russell street Police Office and asked the officer to favour him by explaining who he was and where ho came from. No hint as to the proper answer could be obtained to these questions until the 20th of last month, when a commercial traveller recognised his portrait. His wife has now been discovered, and the discovery has only served to emphasise the genuineness of the case. The man does not kuow his wife or child, has no remembrance whatever of them, and cannot, even enabled by their presence and by its being explained to him what relation they bear to him, remember anything whatever concerning his previous existence. It turns out that his name is George William Southern ; he was a pianoforte tuner residing in Albury, on the border, and associated with his business that of life assurance agency. He is the son of an English Baptist minister, and has been in the colonies for several years. In Wagga Wagga he gained some distinction among the Good Templars, and it is a curious thing that when Good Templar signs were made to him the other day ho was able to respond to them. He got married in Albury about two years ago, and settled down there. He was a good husband in every way, he did not drink or live riotously, his wife and he lived happily together, and he was a fond father to his child, which is now about ten months old. He had good health, except that he suffered a good deal from headaches and from sleeplessness. On the 9th of January he left home to go to a neighbouring town, and from that time, until his wife wa« told that he was in Melbourne in such an extraordinary condition, she had not heard of him. As she thought he might be transacting life assurance business, his absence for a few days did not alarm her, but when she did grow alarmed she and her mother telegraphed and wrote to several places about him, but in vain. When sm came down to Melbourne and was taken to see him in the gaol, there was an effecting scene. She went forward to caress him, but he met her with an unrecognising stare. She then tried to give him the child, but he showed no signs that he recognised it either. He remains in the same condition still. He is told that she is his wife, but though he understands what that means, he acts towards her as a complete stranger, and speaks of her as “ This lady, my wife.” It is a singular thing that he can play on the harmonium and piano pieces of music he knew formerly, and he plays them from memory, not from music, but he cannot remem tier ever having played them before. His memory is absolutely blotted out. The doctors take great interest in his case. Hr O’Hara says that he has located a spot on the skull which Southern cannot bear to be pressed, and ho believes that the skull has thickened at this spot, and has grown in upon the brain, thus causing the loss of memory. There will probably bo a big medical consultation over the case. MONETARY AND COMMERCIAL. London, March 5.

The Antwerp wool sales are fixed for March 14th to 17th inclusive. 7225 bales of River Plato and 600 of Australian are catalogued. Tallow, medium mutton, 33a; ditto beef, 31s. The English wheat market is lifeless, and the Continental dull, but the American is improving. Australian cargoes of new crop, early shipment, are being ottered at 31s. New Zealand rabbit skins, fair to good, Is 5d ; medium to fair, Is 2=Jd. The Bank of Ireland shares have undergone a further fall of £4. March 7.

English wheat is quoted at 26a Id. In tendering to the War Office for the supply of Australasian meat to the garrison at Malta, Messrs Wills & Co, intimate that they propose to spend £12,000 in erecting stores to supply citizens as well. Paris, March 5. France concedes the minimum tariff to Canadian fruit, tinned meats, and cheese, in return for an equivalent concession. Melbourne, March 6. The Enterprise Building Society has lost over £3OOO upon the year's work, and depositors have been invited to consider the position.