Singular Recovery from Lethargy

Feilding Star, Volume XIV, Issue 137, 9 May 1893, Page 4

Singular Recovery from Lethargy

♦ For the past five months a girl of thirteen, of good family, had been lying in a state of complete lethargy in a private hospital at Vesinet, outside Paris. The sleeping maiden has i been recently restored to consciousness by Dr Reffegean, who had the charge of her, in a peculiar manner. She usually lay asleep with her mouth •wide open, and her throat exposed to view. The physician noticed that one of the tonsils was enlarged, so he resolved to canterise it with a red-hot iron, an operation which would be beneficial to the patient, even if it did not have the effect of terminating her cataleptic condition. After the iron had done its work, the girl, who had been previously insensible to the pricking of pms, manifested unmistakable signs of pain, and uttered a feeble cry. From that moment she began to return to consciousness, and at last awoke, saying to the nun who was taking care of her, •' Where am I?" The patient had no recollection or notion of anything shat had taken place during the five months in which she was asleep, and manifested the greatest surprise when told about her extraordinry long slumber. She is now said to be in a normal state of health, full of spirits, and eager to make up for her long silence.