The Lake Charles echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1876-1898, 1879-03-01
DEAD AND YET ALIVE.


Tine wopaersuI STORY Reiatea nj BEssc
Mary 4. Fnncher. who De BIina 4and Yes
can See, Deaf and Vet can HeAr, ALIVE
but REQ uxrcs Mo- Ee0d.
In Downing street, Breeklyn, has lain
for thirteen years Miss Mary j. Fancher,
much of the time in francs 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 injured in the
spine and about the head while alighting
from a street-car, heing thrown to the
ground and dragged along over the stones
by the tangling of her dress in the rear
soi the car. She was removed to the
house of her aunt, Mrs. Crosby, In
Downing street, and put in bed, whence
abe has never been removed save for q
few minutes at time. This was early
in 1866. Very soon after the accident
she underwent most astonishing physical
changes. Her nervous system YVES un-I
controllable whenever she was in any
manner excited. while she was absolutely
paralyzed at other times. I'm succession
she was bereft of vision, speech and hear
ing. From violent spssms she drifted
into trance>iike state, from which it
required the unremitting Efforts of phy-
sicians and friends to arouse her. "A
the expiration of twenty days her facul-
ties were all restored. For half an hour
abe saw, articulated and listened. Then
these three senses deserted her again,
and within ten 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 ioed 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 halt after the
accident she went into rigid trance for
twenty-one hours, and then passed into
a relaxed trance that lasted for three
days. Her throat became paralyzed, and
she .could neither swallow nor utter q |
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 all 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 left her at in
tervals. Three years ago the rigidity of
her body relaxed, and aight 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 nonrishment, with no |
desire for it except at long intervals,
when she puts q bit of fruit or candy in
her mouth for 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 horse; rheumatic and neuralgic 4
pains; frequent changes in bodily state,
with tendency toward pulmonary troub-
les, power OF speech and Of hearing.
TESTIMONY THAT cANNoTBE IaPUNaED.
During lthese thirteen years, though
blind she has read with perfect ease.
She hasfrom the first been able to zee and
describe acts and persons far removed
from her sbedaifie At all t;p,as aho h. /