The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1891-01-01
DUAL PERSONALITY.
A QUEER STORY TOLD BY PRO-
FGSSOR WILLIAM JAMES.

The Wonderful Case of Man who Was |
Somebody Else for Two Months When
Hypnotized He Could Recall Every be-
tail of hts Experience.
Professor william James describes a |
case Of double personality OF the SO called |
ambulatory type, the investigation of |
which he has just concluded.
The subject is n man, now about 60 years |
of age, residing in small place near Paw
tucket, r. l. This person was carpenter |
until 1857 when, by strange visitation of |
Providence, he was induced to adopt alto. |
gether different habits Of life lie had been
an atheist One day, while walking in the
open country, he thought he heard voice
saying:
"Go to the chapel, 20 TO the chapel"
"To what chapel9" he inquired Of his in.
visible monitor
"To the Christian chapel, was the reply.
Now the carpenter was on unfriendly
terms with the minister Of the Christian
chapel, and be exclaimed aloud:
Before go to that place ] hope God
may strike me deaf dumb ,nd blind"
Instantly he fell to the earth, enveoped
in darkness and silence, and without the
power OF speech.
The events which followed, as Professor
James said in telling this part OF the story,
were such as generally occur in cases Of
the same sort, which are frequent in re-
| ligious history. Suffice it TO say that the
| events eliminated in the mau's restoration
| to his senses in his conversion and in his
| adoption of the vocation OF an itinerant
| preacher.
For thirty years he followed this calling,
| doing great deal of missionary work, and
| becoming well known over a large area Of
| New York state and western New England
| Early in 1851 he had abandoned his
| preaching, being advanced in years and de.
sirous of living more quietly, and had
taken up again his old trade of carpenter
ing. His health was still good, and he
worked twelve or thirteen hours a day in
| preference to nine sr ten.
In what follows it is well to remember
Professor James assurance of his convic.
tion that the man in question is sincere,
free from deception and genuine subject
Of strange physical phenomena.
THE CANDY MERCHANT
One day, while living at Greene, r. L. he
suddenly disappeared from home. Everyef.
fort was made to find him, but to no avail
/ He was completely lost
| Two months later, in Norristown, Pa, q
man named Brown, who kept u little candy
store, woke up in the middle. of the night
and found himself in a strange place. His
bed was strange the room in which he lay
was strange and the shop into which he
groped his way was 50 unfamiliar that he
became thoroughly alarmed. Fearing he
| would be taken for "a burglar he cried for
help. The neigbbors rushed out in the
night and discovered Brown, the candy
merchant, in an unaccountable state
where am /? Who am |? Who are
you" he cried, in great perturbation.
They thought their ncighbor must have
suddenly gone crazy. When told that his
name was Brown he denied it, and gave as
his name that of the erstwhile preacher and
carpenter of Rhode Island
The village doctor was called upon for
advice. He saw in the case something diff.
ferent from ordinary mania, but still he
| thought it was mania. However, he com.
| municated with Browns alleged relatives
in Rhode Island and, to be sure, Browns
assertions concerning himself we're found
| to be true.
But Brown now had no recollection OF
his experience in the candy store, nor did
he know how he got there or how he left
Rhode Island.
The case became noised abroad and was
investigated by a Philadelphia physician
but with no results.
All that was known was that the man
had been away from home two months
six weeks of which he had spent at Norris,
town, but the remaining fortnight was a
blank to him and could be ev3lqined by
nobody else.
In the course of time the circumstances
reached the notice OF Professor james The
man was now again Mt home pelceably
pursuing his trade of carpenter The pro.
fessOr visited him and found him to be q
hard headed, matter-of-fact Yankee After
considerable persuasion he was induced
to come to Cambridge aud be hypnoti2ed.
The professor thought that in hypnotic
trance the man might remember his Brown
experience. And so he did This is the
most valuable phase of the phenomenon
from physical point of view.
WHEN HYPNoTIzEp.
He was very readily hypnotized, and as
soon as he passed into the trance began to
talk of Norristown and the candy store
He also explained those two weeks that
had been up to this time mystery to
everybody. While prosaic enough, his ac,
count was perfectly circumstantial Hav,
ing conceived a notion that some trouble
was in store for him at home, he got on a
horse car one day and rode to Pawtucket
proceeded thence to New York, stopped
one night at the Grand Union hotel, went
on to Philadelphia, put up couple OF
nights at a hotel and then took room at
a boarding house.
While there, seeing an advertisement of
a small business for sale ia Norrstown, he
went to that place, which he had never
visited before, and set himself up in trade
Such was his story when he was in the
hypnotic state, and in that state he could
remember nothing Of his former or normal
condition. On the other hand, while in his
waking state he had no recollection of his
Brown experience subsequent TO his board,
ing the horse car to ride TO Pawtucket, nor
could he tell why he started on this trip.
His Brown personality was, as Professor
James put it, a weak, insipid, diluted ex-
tract OF his normal personality. In the
two states he was two entirely different
| men.
He WAS hypnotized many times and at
tempts were made by all sorts of artifces
to effect at least a partial fusion of his
Brown condition aud his normal condition,
but these efforts were quite unsuccessful.
The only result was that his hypnotic
memory grew more and more feeble, until
finally he could recollect only the barest
outlines Of his Brown experience, Boston
Herald.
A CrOolS'S Accomplishments.
Sam German, a Philadelphia crook was
turned over to the officers at the time Of