The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1896-04-08
auaers0u SmteGItqemeer.
IN A TRANCE.
The Singular Case of Miss Benedict
of New York.

To lie for weeks as one dead, to be
partially sensible of what is taking
place about you, to be utterly deprived
of voice, hearing and muscular action,
to be in constant terror of being en-
tombed alive, is, perhaps, mt of the
most dreadful and agonizing expert
ences that can befall a human being:
Such, however, was the condition OF
Miss Hattie Benedict, a handsome and
prepossessing young lady of Marengo,
N. Y, for four months until Wednes-
day last. Four months ago this
young woman fell into a state coma,
which continued almost uuiDterrupt-
edly for over FIVE weeks. Then a
peroid of five weeks ensued during
which the young lady was in a semi
cataleptic condition. On the 9th of
last month she again lapsed into a state
of complete coma, from which she
became conscious for the first time
Wednesday.
The unfortunate young woman is
the daughter of Elijah Benedict, a
wealthy and well-known farmer resid-
ing near the village of Marengo, a small
hamlet six miles southeast of Lyons.
Miss Benedict is a handsome woman
nearly 10 years of age. The Bene-
diets are an old and numerous family
in this vicinity.
The peculiar affection from which
Miss Benedict suffers is not character
lied by the same symptoms as those
reported in the medical treatise. When
the first trance appeared it crept
gradually over the young woman with
out any apparens cause. Sitting IN a
chair or busted about the house, with
out regard to excitement or ennui, she
would become aware of a growing feel
ing of drowsiness, and then gradually
lapse into a semi-comatose state.
And though, as she afterwards related
in the seeming full possession of her
intellectual faculties, she was utterly
muscle of her entire body. On these
without the power to move or stir a SIM
gle occasions her upper eyelids had a
decided downward tendency, and she
has a full consciousness Of the range
of her vision. She could even see
their lips moving, but vas utterly I'M
able to comprehend a word of their
conversation or to hear the loudest
noise made in the room. To the at
tendants there was no sparkle or gilt
for of the eve to show that she was
conscious of their movements-noth-
ing but a cold, dull, lustreless stare
like a dead person. She experienced
no pain or physical sensation of any
kind, though a brisk pinch Of the fin
gers or the insertion of a pin point in
to her flesh would sometimes cause a
slight, almost undesirable movement
or start of the body. The operation
of the heart was slightly perceptible,
some traces of physical warmth re-
NAMED, a slight color fingered with
in the centres of the cheeks, upon ap-
plicatiou of a mirror to the lips, a
torpid, irregular and vacillating action
Of the lungs was to be detected:
These are symptoms that characterized
her five weeks trance, from which
she awoke at rare invertals, and re-
tanned s~ensib;lity only for a few mo-
ments alta time. Her restoration wal al
ways sudden and complete. The awak-
enings were attended by cold sweats.
and every change of her countenance
was expressive of the most intense
terror. On every occasion of her re-
turn to consciousness her first words,
uttered in weak and broken syllables,
were:
~ am alive. Please don't bury
me-"
Mrs. Benedict, the girls mother,
with tears in her eyes, each time tried
to calm her daughter, assuring her
that she was not going to die, and.
that she would soon be restored to
health. Once during this period when
the girl awoke the mother hurried to
get her a cup Of tea and a slice OF
toast. Her daughter had the toast III
her hand and was raising it to her
mouth when she sank into a trance,
crushing the bread in her rigid fingers,
Thursday morning, November 10, 1895,
she partially awoke from her trance:
complaining of an acute pain at the
base Of her brain. She had been
in a practically uninterrupted trance for
over FIVE weeks. Then followed near.
ly five weeks during vhick the young
lady remained in what may be termed {,
semi-cataleptio state, characterized by
frequent intervals of complete con-
seriousness.
The trance from which Miss Bene-
dict suffered until Wednesday last
came upon her instantly and without
a moments warning Sunday morning,
January IL. She was reclining upon
a sofa in the sitting room when she
complained Of a feeling Of faintness,
and had scarcely spoken the words
when she fell into a deep sleep. Her
mother hurried to her sides and, find
ing her numb, stiff and chilly and her
limbs in a drawn up position, placed
her upon the floor and straighten her
extremities. This she had been in
structed to do by the attending physi-
clan least the death-like rigidity that
had characterized her preceding
frances should stifen her limbs in an
unnatural position. The young wo-
man was then carried to her room,
where she continued in a death-like
stupor until Wednesday last. When
the attending physician, DR.. r. A.
Hubbell, arrived he found the patient
pale and white as marble, the extrem-
tiles stiff and cold as in death the
eyes, which we're dull and fixed, turn
ed upward and inward the irises
greatly contracted, the eyelids mo-
tionless, lips chalky white and some