The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-10-14
THE SLEEPING BEAUTY.


the History of Science.
The st. Louis Republican of the 10th inst.
tells the following remarkable story
The st. Louis Medical Society on Saturday
night appointed a committee, composed of
DIR. Gill, DIR. Edgar, DR.. Johnston, Dr. Nc
Pheeters, and DIR. Rumbold, to make in
quiries respecting the case of Susan G.
Godsey, who has attained no small celebrity
as The Sleeping Beauty, having been. as is
alleged, some twenty-one years in state of
Inconsistencies, with the exception of inter-
walls of few minutes daily. She was brought
to this city last week. and is staying, or
rather slee ping, at the house of Mrs Davis.
on Walnut street, between Fifth and Sixth
The fact that the Medical Sooety has thought
1t worth willie to examine into the case re-
moves the suspicion of anything like hum
bug, and so it becomes really subject for
very interesting inquiry.
The committee called about 10 o'clock A.
M. yesterday at the house mentioned and
soon after their arrival the girl awoke to con-
seriousness for a few minutes, and then fell
back into her state of insensibility and Sleep
The physicians found that her pulse beat at
about 1OS or 109 per minute, and her temper
ature was from SO to o. Inquiries were
made as to her diet, her conversation, and
her past history. After making their obser-
vations and taking a few notes the committee
o'clock in the afternoon, and another at ten
IN the evening. The case was stated to be
one which had never been paralleled in their
experience. The report which they will make
next Saturday will no doubt be interesting.
The following particulars were ascertained of
the girls history
Susan G. Godsey, the subject of the in
quiry, is twenty-nine years of age, and was
born seven miles west of Trenton, Gibson
county, Tennessee, where her parents kept
small farm. Her family removed to Obion
county, where she was q sprightly, healthy
little girl, and she went with them. After
this she was occasionally taken ill with chills
and fever but was partially relieved by the
use of quinine. On the fist of August, 1S49,
when she was nearly eight years of age, she
fell into torpid, insensible, benumbed con-
dition, in which, as it is veraciously stated
she has remained during the last twenty-one
years, varied only by very singular and uu-
paralleled series of phenomena, which goes
on with the accuracy of clock work. Every
morning, precisely at the first dawning of
light, she is found awake. This state of
wakefulness, however, d does not ordinarily last
for more than from four to eight minutes Very
rarely it has been ten minutes During its
continuance she eats and drinks and talks.
After having been awake for the time stated,
the patient is then seized with kind of con-
vulsion, her head moves from one side of the
pillow to the other, in what is called ''lateral
motion. These motions are very rapid,
and appear entirely uncomfortable. She then
bends forward her head and kind of hic-
cupping is heard in her throat, and she finally
relapses into her former torpid condition. her
eyes are closed, her lips are firmly compressed.
and no motion is visible except a constant
agitation OF the hands, which move about per-
petually. This process Is repeated every
time she wakes, and also at intervals when
aSlePn. AmOnO 1nrtio
in connection with this case is that of the
numerical regularity of the symptoms which
precede the awakening. In a few minutes
after she is seized with the commissions and
the lateral motion as described, she has
twelve hiccups, then adding one each time
until she has sixteen. This usually takes half
an hour The order of number is then re-
versed. After having had a convulsion, fol-
lowed by sixteen hiccups, the nuMber is
gradually lessened until sixteen is reached
and then she awakes. From six to twelve in
the morning she wakes once every hour In
the afternoon, however, she sleeps until 3
o'clock and then at sundown. During the
night she awakes at and at IL o'clock The
next time is three in the morning.
1t will thus be seen that this LADY, who is
the subject of some strange nervous derange-
ment, Is going through series of convul-
sions, in Tie midst of which she wakes at
regular hours, and after peculiar sound has
been emitted. When asleep she is alike in
sensible to the effects of both sound and pain.
During the last five or six years Miss God
sey has been subject to neuralgia pains in the
head and spine, and in almost constant pain
when awake to feel it. Her mind is perfectly
rational While she is awake, and she readily
distinguish, her mother and the friends who
attend on her. OF course she has had no
opportunity of enlarging her IDEAS, and her
mind is IL almost the same state with regard
to knowledge as when she was eight years of
age. She is unable to stand or walk, but can
speak in low tone of voice.
She says she is never sleepy, and never hun
cry. Small portions of well-cooked food are
supplied to her daily, but she seldom shows
preference as to what she eats. She drinks
tea and coffee sometimes and very frequently
asks for water. She breathes in a very low
and subdued manner. Personally she has
very frank, intelligent features, black hair,
small mouth, and dark complexion. She has
for years been attended by DIR. Glover and
DIR. Phea. This is the first time she has been
so far awsy from home, having been brought
for the purpose Of undergoing medical in
spection. The patient has been examined by
numerous eminent physicians, and her symp-
toms are considered to be the result of an
abnormal condition of the nervous system.
unparalleled in the history of medical science.
THF TNTVFRSTTIEs AMI THE WAp laftar