The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-05-17

her only in the last month, said Miss
Ebbersen, during which time it had
become almost impossible to keep her
awake. The Dalles family in which
she did homework managed to get her
up sometimes at noon. And yet she
went to bed early in the evening. This
desire to sleep had grown upon her of
late, and the family, that of a shoe
maker by the name of Jensen, though
feeling kindly toward her, had come to
the conclusion that the girl was in
need of medical aid.
I'VE came down on the cars to Port
land yesterday" continued Miss Eb-
/ bersen, land Lena slept all the way
from The Dalles. When we reached the
city I managed to awaken her and
took her for the night to a family liv-
ing at COS Quimby street. Then she
went right to bed, and to sleep, and
slept until she was reused at 2 O'Clock
! this afternoon, to come to the hos
/ pital''
Miss Hansen during the interview
maintained absolute silence When
she was taken into the woman's ward
she persisted in wanting to undress
herself and demurred when the attend
ant took some of her wearing apparel
from her. Otherwise she was perfectly
passive. She was finally got into bed,
and no sooner did her head touch the
pillow than to all intentS and purposes
| she went to sleep.
Thus she has lain asleep in the cot
in the southwest corner of the ward.
Women racked with pain and suffering,
lying in adjacent cots. have forgotten
their own pain occasionally to wonder
at the pale-faced girl who is always
asleep. One young woman in a cot not
| ten feet away has been occupied OBJ
serving her strange sleep at all hours
of the day and night, and she says that
up to Wednesday night, she never
heard her speak, or saw her move or
even open her eyes, voluntarily.
All this while Miss Hansen, who was
in fair physical condition when she en-
tered the hospital, kept growing thin
ner and .he bones in her wan white
face began to show in a way that was
pitiful to see.
Not being in a state of pure catalepsy
the organs of her body feebly con-
tinued to do their work, and, of course,
it was necessary to give her nourish-
ment of some kind. Left to herself, the
doctors say that she would sleep until
her nurse, Miss Dina h, was instr v:ted
to give her half a glass of milk every
three hours. At first the milk was
| poured into her mouth after her teeth
had been pried apart, the act of swal-
J lowing, the doctors say being merely
mechanical. But of late they have been
feeding her the milk through a tube.
When it comes around to the hour for
her to take her milk, the nurse arouses
her in much the same way that a tired
sleeper is awakened. Sometimes the
girl will open her eyes when thus
awakened and maybe attempt to MUIR
muir reply to a persistent questioner.
But, even when thus aroused, she is
never completely awake, being in a sort
of doze, and as soon as the nurse leaves
her cot she goes sound asleep again.
DR.. Giesy became interested in the
poor girls case, and, believing that she
was suffering from low form of ty-
phoid fever, he began with doses of
iodides, which were increased until
finally she was taking thirty-five
grains to a dose. But the iodide treat
ment failed to have the desired effect.
1t is but just to state that nothing of
the girls past life could be learned at
the time, and the physicians were all
cropping in the dark for something that