Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1891-08-10
SNEEZING HER LIFE OUT.
The Strange Malady with Which Mary
Criston Is AM

Criston Is AMI
o, ", Hug. "a cores
Dondent has just returned from South
Charleston, twelve miles east of Spring
se,d near which village lives the GIRL
Mary Criston, whose paroxysms OIL
sneezing so violent as to threaten her
,th, has aroused the interest OF the
moU'o"' .ernity Of the whole state.
MISS Oris'oh Is a-,ut twenty-three years
old. She is a verv pretty blonde, of a
high-strunR, nervous temperament She
was taken from an industrial school by
Hartford Peterson, a rich farmer, and
lives in his family.
She was first seized with fits Of sneez.
ing last Tuesday. The fits seemed hy-
sterical in character. The sneezes were
short and similar to short puffS of To-
comotive. When once started she seem
en- utterly unable to stop them. When
they cease she relaxes into trance-like
state possessing neither sense nor mo-
tion.
The Petersons tried all sorts of RENE
dies to stop the sneezing and also to
bring her out OF the state of trance
such as throwing water in her face, put
ting water in her mouth, holding
smelling salts to her nose. etc. These
seemed to be of little avail. On one oc-
casion the girl remained so long in a
trance after an especially long and vio-
lent fit OF sneezing that her attendant
thought she was dead.
DIR. NJ. NJ. f. Ramsay, young ply
sician OF South Charleston, who was
early called into the case, gave the girl
hypodermic injections Of morphine
while she was in the trance. He also
suggested chloroform as the best means
of stopping the violent sneezing. This
was tried once and succeeded so well
that the physician left a supply with
the Petersons with instructions TO satur-
ate sponge with it and hold 1t close to
the girls nostrils when the sneezing be-
came excessively violent.
The girl had a severe case of grip
last Winter, and it is possible that the
effects OF the disease, coupled with a
remarkably nervous and hysterical
temperament, may have something to
do with the strange case.
1t is said that Miss Criston used to
reside with Mrs. Peterson's married
daughter, Mrs. Minnie Clark. Mr..
Clark has had the hay fever severely
every summer, and 1t is possible the
girl may have acquired her sneezing
habit by the faculty Of hysterical imi-
tation, which often happens in the case
of hysterical people.
The paroxySms of sneezing are so vio-
lent and she suffers so much while in
them that she cannot eat or sleep, and
it is feared that she may die from heart
failure during one of them.
Miss Criston is better to-day, and II
the paroxysms of sneezing can be kept
in check she may recover.
DR.. Ramsey to-day said:
"The girl seems TO be of an intense,
romantic, nervous and hystericaI dispo-
sition. She does houSework at the Pc
terSons, milking cows and some Of the
rough outdoor work. Notwithstanding
this she is vast devourer Of romantic
literature.
'Just after l gave her a hypodermic
injection Of morphine, while she was in
a trance state, she suddenly came to and
commenced to sob, saying: OH OH
take me home, take me home As she
had no other home but the Petersons l
did not know just what she meant. She
then abruptly turned to me and asked
me, with a smile, II ever read novels.
| was completely taken back and said
did. then asked her II she ever read
anv. She said she did and said that the
last she had read were Joel Fortunat,
Dangerous Delights and Sardou's Cleo
patra.' Now I can tell you 1t Is not
many milkmaids who indulge in reading
Sardou's plays.
"Her peculiar afiiction is plainly ner-
vousness and the result Of her hysterical
state"