TWO YEARS' TRANCE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8314, 18 December 1906, Page 7

TWO YEARS' TRANCE.

EXTRAORDINARY PUZZLE FOR GERMAN DOCTORS. In a leading medical journal of Berlin, Prof. Eulenburg, the eminent specialist for diseases of the brain, recounts a curious case of a man whom he has been attending, and who has been in a trance for two years and four months. This man, whose name is not given, was an official of the municipality of Wilmersdorf, near Berlin. He had been concerned in some shady transactions, and was summoned to Berlin to give explanations. On his way he slipped from a tramcar, injuring the back of his head. He was at once treated by an ordinary medical practitioner, but three hour& after his accident he had already begun to show signs of sleepiness. Ten days after the accident he was fast asleep. This was June 20th, 1904. Since then he has not opened his eyes or shown any signs of consciousness. Professor Eulenburg describes his case as follows: —He is lying in bed with his head towards the right side. Across his forehead are deep wrinkles, as one frowning. His limbs may be freely moved from side to side. His skin is not sensitive to deep needle pricks, his shut eyes show no movement when a strong light is placed beside them. His sense of smell has also gone. He''takes no notice of pun gent odours. He shows no sign that he wants anything. Food and drink are supplied to him at regular intervals, but he makes no sign that he is either hungry or thirsty. He chews slowly and swallows in a normal fashion. Never once has he spoken a word. During one of his most recent visits the professor found him dressed and placed by his wife at an open window. It was a horribly uncanny sight—the closed eyes and waxen visage of this torpid man. It reminded him of one of those figures in a waxworks, placed at intervals to deceive visitors by their likeness to living beings. Parts of his brain had been injured, but how or why this death in life has been caused Dr Eulenburg is unable to. say. His state of mental uneasiness at the time of the accident may have had something to do with it, and it is probable he may waken quite suddenly.