The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1896-05-06

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 would give
them a hint as to the cause of this
strange sleep.
When Dr. Giesy left for the East a
week or 10 days ago, DR.. Saylor, county
physician, assumed charge of the case.
The result of his diagnosis made him
think that it was a case of hysteria-
catalepsy, partaking of both the ma
ture of pure catalepsy and also hyste-
ria. Wednesday. finding the girl was
still sleeping, he prescribed cold baths
twice a day.
That evening, one of the nurses. who
understands massage, placed her in
rubber sheet and poured cold water
over her She lay passive while this
was done and also all through the mas
sage part of the bath, which was pref
ty vigorous. Said the nurse after
ward: Il slapped her good, and when
was through her skin was actually
rosy"
When Miss Hansen was put back
into her cot she volunteered a remark,
the first in So days. She said that she
felt better. Yesterday morning she had
another cold bath, with a massage
afterward, which seemed to improve
her When an Oregonian reporter was
brought into the ward early in the
forenoon, she was lying there with her
eyes open. for the first time i'm five
weeks. Her eyes are pale blue. and
they appear to look at one with an ut
ter lack of intelligence. The express
sion of her face, though, seemed to in
dictate some kind of suffering, much as
might that of a dumb brute.
To all the reporters questions she
gave a blank stare for an answer,
though finally. when she was asked
who brought her to the hospital. she
family murmured "Sophy." When the
reporter left the ward, she was still
lying in the cot. but instead of being
asleep she lay with her eyes wide open.
Later in the day she went to sleep
again.
The news that the girl sleeper" as
she is called in the hospital. had awak-
ened. quickly spread and everybody
was curious to know whether she was
going to get well. The physicians who
arrived i'm the course of the morning
expressed all sorts of theories as TO the
cause of the sleep. there being a wide
divergence of opinion. In their rounds
of the hospital they had all heard of
the curious case. and admitted that no
one OF them had ever met with such
case before.
DIR. Saylor was asked for an opinion
in regard to Miss Hansens strange
sleep. and he again expressed himself
as thinking that IL was a case Of hys-
terra -catalepsy.
Men and women OF her nationality
are often of a sluggish temperament"
he said Their vitality is low, and
they are slow in recovering from ILL
ness. We had a case here of an old
woman who was three months in get
ting over an attack Of typhoid fever
She would not get well. and, finally. l
had to threaten To bundle her off to the
poorhouse.. This frightened the old
lady into getting well, otherwise she
would still have been sitting in the
hospital in a chair.
This case is, of course. different 1t
Is a very serious case. and | am be-
coming very much interested in IT,
Her present condition is primarily the
result OF nervous prostration. She
probably had run down very much
physically. and this. in connection with
worry and mental troubles. has re-
duced her TO a semi-cataleptic state.
the result. in fact. OF hysteria."
DR.. Ssylor thought that the girls