St. Landry democrat., 1879-02-01
DEAD AND YET ALIVE,

can See, Deaf and Vet can Hear, Alive
but Requires No Food
In Downing street. Brooklyn, has lain
for thirteen years Miss Mary J. Fancher,
much of the time in a trance like con-
dition, with feeble heart pulsations, slug.
gish and almost imperceptible respi-
ration, and the chill OF death upon her
flesh. At the age of fourteen Miss
Fancher was seriously Iinjured in the
spine and about the head while alighting
from street-car, being thrown to the
ground and dragged along over the stones
by the tangling of her dress in the rear
OF the car, She was removed to the
house of her aunt, Mrs. Crosby, in
Downing street, and put in bed, whence
she has never been removed save for a
few minutes at time. This was early
in 1865. Very soon after the accident
she underwent most astonishing physical
changes. Her nervous system was I'M
comfortable whenever she was in any
manner excited, while she was absolutely
paralyzed at other times. In succession
she was bereft of vision, speech and hear
ing. From violent spasms she dritted
into a trance>Iike state, from which it
required the unremittjng efforts of ply
sicians and friends to arouse her. A
the expiration of twenty days her facul-
ties were all restored. For half an hour
she saw, articulated and listened. Then
these three senses deserted her again,
and within teu more days her fingers
became clinched, her jaws locked, her
limbs twisted. Spasms were thereafter
more frequent and violent. The days
slipped away into weeks before she was
able to keep any food on her stomach,
and it was just short Of two months that
she was without nourishment. Then
very light food was ,one day given her
with seemingly beneficial results. She
has eaten altogether since that day
nearly thirteen years ago-not so much
food in the aggregate as an ordinarily
healthful girl of her age would eat in
forty-eight houas.
NINE YEARS OF TRANCE.
Three months and hall after the
accident she went into rigid trance for
hours, and then passed into
q relaxed trance that lasted for three
days. Her throat became paralyzsd, and
she .could neither swallow nor utter
sound. Her right arm doubled up back
of her head, and became fixed there with
the rigidity Of death. A year later this
condition was followed by absolute
rigidity of body, with the exception of
the left arm and hand, which she was
able to use. This latter condition lasted
for nine years, in sll OF which time she
was continually drifting into and out of
frances. She continued to be blind, the
pupils Of the eyes being rolled upward,
and the whites only visible when the
lids were parted for examination. Very
tightly indeed were the, lids sealed, and
with difficulty were they opened. She
had the power of speech, however, all
of the time, although it LETT her at in
tervals. Three years ago the rigidity OF
her body relaxed, and sight and hearing
were restored. Her present condition is
blindness, the eyelids closed, the pupils
sightless and staring, laxity of body,
save in her right arm, that remains
rigid and doubled as above described
inability to take nourishment, with no
desire tor it except at long intervals,
when she puts bit of fruit or candy in
her mouth for a short time and then
rejects it; torpidity o. the system, with
sluggish pulsation and not vigorous
respiration, cheerfulness, with increasing
sensitiveness to being made the theme Of
public gossip, and to receiving strangers;
enlargement of the heart and soreness in
the ribs that, were broken by the fall
from a horse rheumatic and neuralgia
pains; frequent changes in bodily state,
with tendency toward pulmonary troub-
les, power of speech and of hearing.
TESTIMONY THAT CAM OF BE IMPUNGED.
During all these thirteen years, though
blind she has read with perfect ease.
She has from the first been able toeee and
describe acts and persons far removed
from her bedside. At all times she has
been transformed into a cheerful, viva>
cious, intelligent, entertaining young wo-
man, and then she has reIapsed into
speechless, blindness, deafness and en-
tire paralysis OF the senses. She has de-
veloped most astonishing powers, resem-
bling second sight or ciarlvoyanca, read
ing with ease the contents Of sealed let
ters, describing articles in hidden pack
ages, perusing books while absolutely
blind. Sometimes her powers are vol
unfairly, at other times they sre uncon>
sciously exercised So little nourish
ment haa been taken that it may be said
she lives without fCo1. She is sur
rounded by persons OF refinement and
has always been exceedingly sensitive to
any public mention or knowledge Of her