The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1876-11-04
Tho Troy Hystcria Case.

relative to the cOnultlOn Oh tle TWO
girls residing in Cohocs. who were men
toned as suffering from Il singular phys
ical disability. The exact facts are that
the girls are afflicted with mild form
of hysteria. Their names are Lizzle
Lscorbo and Mary Michel, both about
eighteen years of age. The latter has
been married about eight months. Both
were seized ut the same time with con-
vulsions. accompanied by rigidity of all
the muscles, which lasted nearly forty
eight hours. During that time they
were perfectly insensiblc of feeling, as
pins were used and their bodies were
pinched. The paroXysm was followed
by an ecs attic condition. Their eyes
were open, the lips slightly parted with
a happy smile, as though some supreme
JOY held their senses. The hands were
raised with the palms upward. This
condition lasted an hour or more, ana
the girls recovered and arose from the
bed and ate hearty meal. Two hours
afterward they were both seized IN the
same manner rs the first. The paroX-
ysms this time were not SO violent, and
were followed in twelve hours by the
same condition of ecstasy. For three
weeks, about two hours ont OF the
twenty-four each day they had been
similarly affected. Both were in full
health, sleep, eat and converse naturally
when not under the influence of the
singular spell. Miss Liscorbo's par
cnts, with whom the girls reside, seem
very reticcnt, and profess now to be-
licve that they are bcwitched. When
first taken, it was given out that an over
Il Of In,x I.n
Michel's husband says Il chad man
spoke insulting and blasplemous words
to them, which frightened them. re-
porter, in company with physician. 4
visited the girls, and after thorough
examination by the doctor, both
girls being in paroxysms at the time, he
pronounced it form of hystcria. pro-
drced by mental disturbances. with
which the story of Michel, that the girls
were frightened by "bad man" seems
to assimilate. The rigidity of the mus
cles in Miss Liscorbo was so fixed that
her body could be raised horizontally
by lifting at her head and feet, and all
the while her features expressed Sc
rene mental condition. and her pulse
was at the ordinary healthful beat. The
parents are anXiously awaiting the ar
rival from Canada of an uncle who has
acquired celebrity, they say, i'll cxor-
cising bad spirits. When the girls are
free from the malady they seem to he
almost unconscious of what has oc-
cured. suffer no pain from the reaction
of the muscles, and have dim recol-
lection of having had good time and
speak pleasantly of it. The presence
of sympathetic ncighbors plcases them
and hastens the return of the coinatosc
state.
The BURIAL Cure. - In 1913 there
lived at South Shields (Englanll Ia
boring man named DickiirstvF, a native
of the village of Coniscliifc. near Oar
limgton. He was afflicted with paraly-
sis, which for some years had crippled
his limbs and deprived him of the use
of the left side OF his body. One day,
rs he was slowly crawling along the
street, he met with an elderly we'll
dressed man. who stated that he was u
physician from Edinburgh, and he, on
hearing of Dickinsons case, advised
him to return to his native village and
have himself covered up with earth,
which operation would cure him. The
poor fellow, nothing doubling, dragged
himself on foot to Coniscliffe, where he
persuaded an old acquaintance to assist
him in temporarily burying himself.
They proceeded to the Tees-side, where
Dickinson's friend, with his spade, dug
hole in the ground, in which the pa
tient was to lie for four hours. Dick
inson stretched himself in the excava-
ton, with his head only at the outside,
and soil was heapcd upon him to the
depth of two feet. At the expiration
of quarter of an hour the patient
broke out into profuse perspiration,
and an intense pain at the same time
attacked his left side, loin and leg.
Notwithstanding the agony he endured
he remained thus till the expiration of
the allotted time. The man who buried
him, seeing him turn "black in the .
face, and fearing ho should die, would :
have released him sooner, but Dickin-
son would not consent. The sick man,
when the earth was taken off him, arose
and walked away with an active step,
cured of his disease. This remedy for
sickness is an old one; and Dampier,
the voyager, attacked by illness in the
East Indies, was, at his own request,
buried to the neck in the earth until
his pain abated.-DWlington and Stock
ton Times.
HIS PREsCRIPTION.-lm one of the
small mining camps in the Black Hills
lay big Cornishman stricken with fe-
YER. His wife, being unskilled in rene.