The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1894-11-30
A SINGULAR CHANGE.
a MAN PERMANENTLY "TURNED
AROUND" BY AN ACCIDENT.

""ay mtshap-Fartial Hestora-
ton OF Memory Came Slowly, but He
Was a Completely Changed Man.
DR. Osborne, in an interview with n
New York reporter cites the following
case Of lost identity:
'Y. was stalwart young Irisbman eo.
tive, healthy and strong. He was married
o coachman by occupation and was es-
teemed industrious and Trustworthy.
"One afternoon he accompanied two
young men friends to a nearby town tc
make some purchases. The buggy was
small, and the three crowded into the one
seat. In crossing a bridge spanning rail
way the horse took fright at an approach
ing train and became unmanageable. The
horse ran away, the buggy was overturned,
and the three occupants were thrown out.
The horse was finally caught mile or SO
below the bridge and, the whole affsir &C.
curriUg in a thickly settled suburb of the
| town, people were soon on the scene. They
found two insensible men in the road, and
these they carried to nearby house, where
in a short time after the accident I was
enabled TO examine their wounds found
them both suffering from severe skull frac-
lures, from which they both died within q
few hours.
"When we came to look for Y, he had
mysteriously disappeared. Several persons
had seen him in the buggy when IL had
crossed the bridge-had seen the three men
at the time the buggy upset-but somehow
! in the excitement of the accident Y drop
! ped out of sight and was believed to have
gone to his home, less than mile distant
Such was not the case, however, and a
search was instituted in tho belief that he
had wandered off in daEed condition into
some lone place and there perhaps had
fallen insensible. No trace could be found
of him.
1.-THE next day while on my professional
tour l stopped at his home to make in
| quiries of his wife-they were regular pa
| tients Of mine-and was informed that he
had mysteriously appeared at the door Just
a few moments before No one had seen
| him enter the village street leading to his
house. His wife, distracted with grief at
| his unexplained and singular disappear
Hnce, CHANGED to go to the door opening on
| the street, and there confronted Y. stand
| ing dazed and stupid on the doorstep.
| He did not speak at first, but looked about
| him, as she expressed it, as il in n dream.
! His attempts to speak afterward were linn
tied to unintelligible cultural sounds. He
permitted her to lead him inside and to
take off his dust covered and torn outer
| garments, when some of his injuries be-
came apparent. He was undressed and put
/ to bed, and made a thorough examina-
tion of his condition.
His respiration was heavy, irregular
and labored His pulse was high, his pu-
pills contracted, his skin cold, his intelli-
gence almost nil. He had sustained, be-
sides numerous superficial cuts and bruis-
es, fracture of three ribs, a fracture OF
the left arm, a dislocation of the wrist OF
the same arm, fracture of finger of the
left hand and two or three severe scalp and
face wounds. l could detect no skull frac-
ture nor bone depression.
He was singularly Indifferent to my
dressing his wounds and appeared to be to
a largo extent in a state of annsthesia.
After we had dressed his wounds, placed
him in a comfortable position i'm bed and
induced first rate surgical reaction noticed
vague change in his appearance, but
paid no special attention to it, attributing
it to the effects of his fright and the shock
of the accident.
He fully recovered from his injuries in
due season. For about three weeks he lay
in semicomatose state, making at inter
walls feeble attempts to speak, but his eff
forts were mainly inarticulate. AS he raj
lied the various functions regained their
normal status, and he began to say few
words distinctly, but his selection of words
was amnesic, and as he showed deficient
power of attention and incoherence of
ideas 1 fully expected some form of the
aphasic condition to supervene.
81 visited him several times each day
and noted with increasing interest tbs
progressive changes his features under
went. One day l suddenly realized that
he bore but little resemblance to his for
mer self called his wife's attention to it,
and she said that Others had noticed II
also. His eye had an entirely changed ap-
pearance and the features were distinctly
those of another man. His speech came
back finally, but his voice was not his
former well known voice. 1t was now
strangely mild, and the words he used
were carefully selected and evenly enunci-
ated. His hair rapidly turned white in
streaks His face assumed a serious, al
most philosophic, expression and changed
from the former jolly, rotund contour to 9
careworn, peaked one. 1 examined into
his mental condition daily and found that
he was slowly recovering a mental balance
Little by little the memory of his for
mer life came back to him. In course OF
time he recalled enough to tell me of the
runaway up to the point whore he wai
thrown, and thereafter all was blank
Whittier he wandered how he eluded the
persons searching for him, how he wal
enabled at last to find his own house, ar'
all as mysterious to him today as at the
time of the accident.
"He recovered, but not as his former self
He had forgotten how to write his manu-
OF to write at all. The simplest arithmet
ical sums were beyond his intelligence. IL
enjoyed talking with me about his COD
dition and expressed himself as mystitiet
why he had so many things to learn owe
again. So complete were the physical ant
psychioaf metamorphoses in his case tina
when he went out for the first time SOM
of his best known acquaintances failet
TO recognize him, and had they not beei
. prepared for the change probably the
never would have recognized him ava
from his home He had lost all taste TO