The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1894-06-27
DEAD BUT YET ALIVE
Miss MoI|ie Fancher Still Re-
mains on Earth.
RIGID AS DEATH FOR YEARS
Remarkable Case of n Brooklyn Woman
Who for FL Years Has Taken No
Food in the Natural Way.

Whenever any peculiar case of pei
son lying in a trance is brought to tn
public notice the question is Away
asked, "what has become of Molli'
Fancher?" This remarkable woman i
still alive and is now AZ years old. Fo
the past 20 years she has remained IL
her bed, sometimes cold and rigid a.
in death, her room darkened, and he,
body performing none of its natura
functions.
1t is now over fifteen years since :
New York paper came out with the
story of Miss Fancher's case. Thi!
was the first information the public hat
of 1t, Notwithstanding the fact that the
patient had been then in bed for thir
teen years, and had for nine year:
been as rigid as death, the jaws firmly
locked, thus preventing her from re
ceiving a morsel Of food in the natural
way for that entire period. 1t was the
sensation of the day. The press in all
parts of the world took it up. Physi
clans who knew naught of the case pro
nounced i: a hoax. They in turn were
answered by DR.. r. F. Srier, DR.. r. J.
Ormiston, DR.. Mitchell, Professor G. E
West and others who made tests of the
case and who pronounced the symptoms
genuine, but who concertedly and
singly utterly failed to render the
poor woman any relief excepting by
massage during the paroxysms. 1t may
be we'll to recall the incident which
brought about the strange disease that
has 70: over a quarter of century
baffied all the scientific world.
Early In 1865, when Miss Fancher
was an 1s-year-old graduate of the
Brooklyn Heights Seminary, in per-
feet health but not any too robust, she
was thrown from her horse while rid
ing and had several ribs fractured.
She had no more than recovered from
this when she was thrown from the
platform of street car, and, her skirts
catching in the step, she was dragged
long distance and her spine severely
injured.
She was conveyed to the residence
of her aunt aud in a few weeks she
underwent most astonishing physical
changes. In turn she was bereft of
sight, speech, hearing and taste. From
fearful spasmodic contortions, most
horrible to witness, she would lapse
into trance; her body would become
entirely cold, her skin clammy and
moist as in death, The right arm was
always thrown back of the head and
became rigidly fixed, and her jaws
were firmly locked together. There
was no perceptible heart or lung ac-
ton, and the eyes were wide open and
stony. Thus, in the first of one of
these frightful attacks, she remained
for twenty days, and no attempt was
made to furnish nourishment. A year
later her entire body became rigid with
the exception of her left hand, and re-
NAMED so for nine years, during which
time she drifted in and out of these
terrible frances. During this period
she was entirely blind and deaf, but
was able to speak at intervals. The
doctors tried every means in their
power TO open her jaws and give her
nourishment, but were unsuccessful
Then they performed an operation on
her, making an incision into her esoph-
agus, and endeavored to feed her in
this way with a silver tube. Then they
made the astonishing discovery that
her stomach would not retain food,
and that the alimentary canal as well
as other intestincs was shriveling up |
and ossifying. Since that time, with
the exception of fruit juice aud a little
saccharine food, the invalid has re.
ceived no noursihment in this way, and
has been persuaded to submit to ia.
lection by enema at long intervals.
After she recovered from her first
trance, Twenty-Five years ago, she is
said to have astonished her attendants
by her great power of second sight.
to her friends she correctly
narrated incidents of minor Importance
which actually transpired hundreds of
miles away and she foretold tragedies
and deaths which it is claimed actually
occurred precisely in the manner
that she described them. Among these
Is mentioned the great Brooklyn Thea
ter FIRE. Her partial relief from the
frequency Of spasms and frances dur.
Ing the past seven years Is said not to
have b!unted her powers of second
tight and 1t is claimed that she can
foretell the coming of her doctor and
,ther friends with a precision that is
...
Having been a close student during
her school days, she did not, like most (
'oung girls, spend time at embroidery |
Ind other fancy work, but during the
,ast decade her paralyzed hands, with
ut the aid of eyesight, have turned {
tut marvels of fancy work. She car I
FYN>