FIFTEEN YEARS OF LIFE A BLANK.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 24, 28 January 1881, Page 4

FIFTEEN YEARS OF LIFE A BLANK.

The New York Sun's correspondent writing from Syracuse on August sth, says : — ln a plain but neat little storey and a-half white house, 140, Townsend street, lives a German girl named Amelia Hosch, who passed her 26th birthday on the 15th January last. The greater part of her life — fully 15 years — has been a blank. In her childhood Amelia was considered an unusually bright girl. She early learned to read and write both English and German, and could play the piano with considerable skill. When between 10 and eleven years of age she was attacked with fever and ague. This soon developed into hysterical fits, and in a few weeks the girl lost her reason Her power of speech left her, and her limbs refused to support her. She became a helpless imbecile, and did not leave her bed except when lifted from it. From four to eight times a night and from two to six times a day she was seized with the most violent paroxysms. Many times it was thought that she was drawing her last breath. Medicines of every kind were tried, but without effect. In March, 1879, Dr. A. H. Tankle visited the girl, and made a diagnoisis'of her case. He combined a preparation of his oWn> with ! one obtained from a professor in lumbia College, New York. The second night after Amelia began taking ! the preparation she slept all night, ! something, she had not done before her : fifteen years. She began to increase in flesh, and in June, uttered the first words she had spoken since she was first attacked. Gradually her powers of speech returned, and with it her memory. The period of her mental slumber is a blank, and she is more of a child than a woman, except in years. She tells of Avhat she saw in her childhood, and sings the songs that she used to sing in her Sunday school. Although she has received uo instruction since her recovery, she can read, -write, aud figure, and do everything that she did before she lost her reason. When asked about her illues she looks at the questioner in a wondering way — she knows nothing about it. She now weighs about 140 pounds — nearly twice as much as she did before she began taking the preparation. She is a strong healthy-looking young woman. She articulates rather slowly, but her replies are prompt and correct. Wlile talking with the correspondent- of the. ' Sun,' she said. " I know everything 1 used to kmw." She likes to talk, and embraces every opportunity to converse that is offered. The case excites the wonder of physicians and a great many have called to see the girl.