The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-01-10
MUSIC IN HER HEAD.
Strange Sound Issues From the
Skull of an American Girl.

I
Skull of an American Girl.
From the Pittsburg Dispatch.
The strangcst case which medical science
has been called upon to consider for
long time is that Of Retta Thomas. an s.
year-old American girl. nov in Europe.
When the ear is applied to her skull each
beat of pulse and heart is heard like
musical note. The little girl was recently
before the Academic de Medicin in Paris,
her case having been submitted to that
body by DIR. Leopold Klein of London.
Four years ago, when residing with her
parents in New York, the little one was
| dropped on the stairs by a careless nurse
and sustained conclusion of the brain.
| The physician who was called succeeded
| in bringing the tiny patient about in
eight days, with no apparent evil results.
| For several years nothing peculiar was
| noticed about the child, and then her par
ents took her with them to London. While
! there quite accidentally they discovered
the strange fact stated above and In
| great alarm called in Dr. Klein, one of the
| foremost physicians of the English me-
tropolis.
The doctor had never heard of such
| case before and he could by no means ac-
| count for the phenomenon. The heart has
| a way of doing many curious things, but
this was unprecedented, and how it has
| come about Is what some of the most
| skilled physicians of Europe, whose atten-
ton has been called to the case, cannot
! fathom.
| Certainly 1t is a combination of unusual
! conditions say the doctors. The difficulty
! lies in saying exactly what combination
| it is. 1t is quite possible for the heart to
! become so affected by disease that the
movement of the organ against the inner
surface of the peritoneum can be dis
| tinctly heard by a person a dozen feet
| away from the owner of the afflicted or
/ gan. 1t sounds, in such a case, something
! like a COW eating grass. There is moth
| ing musical, however, in the noise, and
| there is no apparent reason why the sound
| should be transmitted in the chllds skull.
1t was at first thought that there must
J be some mistake about this; that the
sound really emanated from some other
| portion of the body, and that the sense
| of hearing was a fault in locating its
source. The most careful examination,
| however by men of exceedingly acute
| hearing, demonstrated positively that the
sound game from the skull 1t was pc
| culiarly bell-like, and very like the musi-
cal note which is obtained by striking a
vessel of thin glass; and what is especially
| surprising, the note so struck did not end
abruptly, but had a lingering cadence. Nor
was that all. Each note was in distinct
] harmony with lne last, anu Nllc AOlSS va
led so as to form a species of melody. 1t
was a continuous performance, too.
| There was not that fitfulness noticeable in
the ordinary pulsation, which even the
unskilled have learned to know through
the familiar quivering diagrams which
show rise and fall and variation.
1t is unquestionably the heart beat and
the following pulsation which is heard,
and yet there is a regularity about the
musical note which is ineXplicable. 1t
is not believed that the nervous system
has anything to do with producing the
sound 1t seems, DIR. Klein says, as If the
coursing of the blood through the brain
must be the cause of the sound and yet
what action is possible which would az
count for a result so strange? DR.. Klein
further said:
I'm all my experience in the London
hospitals and in brain surgery, / nave
never encountered d case which throws
any light on this phenomenon. l cannot
conceive of any malformation OF the brain
which would result in the production OF
such a sound by the pulsation of the blood
as it is pumped from the heart through
the veins which carry the food for the
brain. 1t is always the case when the
brain is at all affected as the result of
such an accident as happened TO this little
girl that the effect Is discernible in some
lessening of the mental power of the pa
tent; but in this instance the child is as
bright and clever as there is any reason
to expect in a person of her years. In
fact, l am inclined to believe that she
is possessed of unusual mental strength.
This proves to me that the brain itself
is not abnormal in any respect. Yet | am
free to say that l cannot see any other
explanation of this peculiar sound than
that it is caused by something unusual
about the brain. SO far as | know, there
is no possible way in which the sound OF
the heart beat or of the action of the
blood impelled throughout the system by
the heart, can be transmitted in this man.
ner. / cannot believe that the nerves
have anything to do with it. Indeed, II is
simply impossible for any nervous action
to be heard when the body is in a normal
state.
"Of course, 1t is possible to hear your
heart beat; and there is a little nstru.
ment, devised not long ago. which en-.
abes a person TO listen to the action
of his heart. just as the doctor has done
for years. But how nature, with all hei
curious processes, can transmit a SOUND
of the action of a relatively remote or
gan through the skull is something which
| am free to admit puzzles me.
at an goes TO show that the human
mechanism is something which medica
science, with all its skill. has not ye
fully fathomed."
Inquiry among New York specialist:
and at the hospitals fails to show any
thing like the case of the little American
girl 1t is certainly one Of the most curl
Gus cases medical science has encoun
tered.
-s-s-s--
The coachman who drives the queer
81 Windsor Balmoral and Osborne. anl
/ urbo IfLovrteo anrounna nine ber 70 Tho oo-