Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1894-10-24
4 SINGULAR CHANGE.
MAN. PERMANENTLY "TuRNED
ARcuNpp BY AN ACCIDENT.
EIc Lost His Identity Through the Shock
of Runaway Mishnp-Partial Rcstora-
{ tion of Memory Came Slowly, but Hc
Was Completely Changed Man.

j
of Runaway Mishnp-Partinl Restora-
tion of Memory Came Slowly, but He
Was q Completely Changed Man.
DIR. Osborne, In an interview with q
New York reporter, cites tho following
case Of lost identity:
~. was a stalwart young Irishman, ac-
tive, healthy and strong. He was married,
coachman by occupation and was es-
tecmed Industrious and trustworthy.
"Ono afternoon he accompanied two
young men friends to a nearby town to
make some purchases. The buggy was
small, and tho three crowded into the one
seat. In crossing bridge spanning a rail-
way the horse took fright at an approach
ing train ana became unlnanageable., The
horse ran away, the buggy was overturned,
and the three occupants were thrown out.
Tho horse was finally caught q mile or SO
below tho bridge, and, the whole affair &C.
curing in 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 a nearby house, where
in short time after the accs,lent was
enabled to examin their wounds. found
them both suffering from severe skull frac-
turcs, 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 it 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 a mile distant
"Such was not the case, however, and o
search was instituted in tho belief that he
had wandered off in a dazed condition into
some lone place and there perhaps had
fallen insensible. No trace could be found
of him.
"The next day while c, my professional
tour stopped ut his home to make in
quirics of his wife-they were regular pa
tients of mine-and was informed that he
had mysteriously appeared at the door just
few moments before. No one had seen
him enter the village street leading to his
house. His wife, distracted with grief Mt
his unexplained and singular disappear
ancc, 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 dream.
His attempts to speak afterward We're lin
tied to unintelligiblc 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 Hewas undressed and put
TO bed. and made thorough examina-
ton of his condition.
"His respiration was heavy, irregular
and labored. His pulse was high, his pu-
pills contracted, his skin cold, his intelli-
gencc almost nil. He had sustained, be-
sides numerous superficial cuts and bruis-
es, n fracture Of three ribs, a fracture OF
the loft arm, g dislocation,of the wrist of
the same are, o fracture of a finger of the
left hand and two or three severe scalp and
face wounds. l could detect no skull frac-
ture nor bone depression.
''Hc was, singularly indifferent to my
dressing his wounds and appeared TO be to
o large extent in q state of an;esthesia.
After we had dressed his wounds, placed
him in a comfortable position in bed and
induced first rate surgical reaction noticed
vague change in his appearance, but
paid no special attention to 1t, attributing
it to the effects of his fright and the shock
of the accident
"Ho fully recovered from his injuries in
due season. For about three weeks he lay
in a 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 a few
words distinctly, but his selection of words
was amnesic, and as he showed deficient
power of attention and incoherence of
ideas I fully expected some form of tho
aphasic condition to supcrvenc
II visited him several times each day
and noted with increasing interest tho
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 it
also. His eye had an entirely changed APP
pearance and the features were distinctly
those of another man. His speech came
back finally, but his voice was not his
former we'll known voice. 1t was now
strangely mild, and the words he used
were carefully selected and evenly onunci-
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 %
careworn, peaked one. l examined INFO
his mental condition daily and found that
he was slowly recovering mental balance.
3 Little by little the memory of his for
mer life camo back to him. In course OF
time he recalled enough to tell mo of the
runaway up to the point where he was
thrown, and thereafter all was blank.
Whittier he wandered, how he eluded tho
persons searching for him, how he was
enabled at last to find his own house, are
all as mysterious to him today as at the
time of the accident.
'sHe recovered, but not as his former sell.
He had forgotten how to write his name
or to write ct all. The simplest nrithmet-
ical sums were beyond his intelligence. He
enjoyed talking with me about his con
dition and expressed himself as mystifed
why he had SO many things to learn over
again. So complete were the physical and
psychical mctamorphoses in his case that
when he went out for the first time somo
of his best known acquaintance failed
to recognize him, and had they not been
prepared for the change probably they
never would have recognized him away
from his home. He had lost all taste for
horses. He said he had forgotten how to
handle them. He didn't even remember
how to arrange harness until shown.
"His desire now was to work at garden
iipr oe,artaipnd fhat when he vvas n