The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-10-18

ing) has been under the care of a physl-
clan named Azam in Bordeaux.
Her normal or at least her usual, dis.
position when he first met her was one
of melancholy and Discrimination to talk
conjoined with eagerness for work. New
ertheless, her actions and her answers to
all questions were found to be perfectly
rational
Almost every day she passed into a Sec
ond state Suddenly and without the
slightest premonition save vi
client pain in the temples she
slumberlike languor, from which she would
awake in few moments a totally differ
emit being. She was now as gay and cherry
as she had formerly been morose. Her i'm
agination was over-excited. Instead of
being Indifferent to everything, she had be-
come alive to excess. In this state she
remembered everything that had happen
ed in the other similar states that had
preceded it., and also during her normal
life But when at the end of an hour
or two the languor reappeared and she re-
turned to her normal melancholy state
she could not recall anything that had
happened in her second, or joyous, stage.
One day she attended the funeral of an
acquaintance just after passing into the
second stage. Returning in a cab she felt
the period coming on which calls her
crisis (normal state). She dozed several
seconds without the ladies who were in
the cab with her noticing it, and awoke in
the other state, absolutely at a loss to
know why she was in a mourning carriage
with people who, according to custom
praised the qualities of a deceased person
whose name she did not even know. Ac-
customed to such positions, she waited:
by adrot questions she managed to I'M
derstand the situation, and no one sus-
pected what had happened.
Once when in her normal condition she
discovered that her husband had a mis-
tress and was so overcome that she
sought to commit suicide. Yet in her
normal mind she meets the woman with
perfect equilibrium and forgetfulness of
any cause of quarrel. It is only her alb
normal state that the jealousy recurs
As the years went on the second state
became her usual condition. That which
was at first accidental and abnormal now
constitutes the regular center of her
psychic life. 1t is rather satisfactory to
chronicle that as between the two egos
which alternately possess her, the more
cheerful has finally reached the ascend
ant.
A case very like Felida's was described
by DR.. S. Weir Mitchell, of Philadelphia.
young girl of a naturally timid and
melancholy disposition was seized at the
age of 20 by deep sleep that lasted
run day. When she awoke it became
apparent that she had totally forgotten
her previous existence, her parents. her
country and the house where she lived
She might be compared to an immature
child.It was necessary to recommence her
education. She was taught to write and
wrote from right to left, as in the Semitic
languages.
She had only five or six words at her
commandments refiexes of articulation
which were to her devoid of meaning. The
labor OF re-education, conducted method
ically lasted from seven to eight weeks
Her character had experienced as great
change as her memory; timid to excess
in the first state, she became gay, unre-
served, boisterous, daring even to rash
ness. She strolled through the woods and
the mountains, attracted by the dangers
of the wild country in which she lived
Then she had fresh attack of sleep. and
returned to her first condition; she recall
ed all the memories and again assumed a
melancholy character, which seemed to
be aggravated. No conscious memory of
the second state existed. A new attack
brought back the second state. with the
phenomena of consciousness which ac-
companied it the first time. The patient
passed successfully a great many times
from one of these states to the other
These repeated changes stretched over a
period of sixteen years. At the end of
that time the variations ceased. The pa
tient was then thirty-six years of age;
she lived in a mixed state, but more close
ly resembling the second than the first;
her character was neither sad nor bolster
Gus, but more reasonable. She died at
the age of 65 years.
Emile X, is another curious case. He is
Partisan lawyer His father was &C.
centric and a drunkard. His mother was
subject to nervous spells. In his normal
state he is of ordinary intelligence and
morality. At certain times, however. he
completely loses his memory for day, a
week, even a month. His past is obliterat-
ed. Nevertheless, as he has not lost CON !
seriousness, new life. a new memory. a
new ego. is developed in him. When a
sudden awakening brings him back to the |
first condition he is entirely ignorant of
all that had happened in his period of OBJ |
livion. On the 18th of May 1889 for ex- |
ample. he breakfasted In a restaurant in |
the Latin quarter. Two days afterward |
he found himself in a square at Troyes
What had he done during those two DAYS? |
He had not the remotest idea All he re- |
membered was that on coming to himself |
he discovered that he had lost his over /
coat and his pocketbook containing 22ef /
On another occasion he woke up to find |
that during his abnormal period he had