Evening journal., 1898-01-04
FAILS TO FIND SLEEP
Kelly Has Been Awake Now
For Fifteen Years.
HOLDS THE RECORD FOR INSOMNIA.
He Is n Philadelphian and Is About TO
Apply TO University OF Pennsylva-
MIA Specialists In Hopes Of
Getting Relief.

PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 4.--After hav-
ing consulted several prominent physi-
clans Of this and other cities IN the hope
of being cured Of the most extraOrdi-
nary case Of insomnia on record Will
liam r. Kelly Of 1918 Melon street, who
claims that he has not slept night or
day for over Is years. is about to apply
to the eminent specialists of the Uni
versity of Pennsylvania for relief.
Thus far all the doctors to whom he
has submitted himself for examination
have been puzzled by his disorder, and
none of them have been able to afford
him even temporary aid by the use Of
opiates in moderate quantities.
That a man could exist through such
a protracted period Of sleeplessness
seems incredible yet Kelly is still alive
and he stoutly maintains that his story
is true. He AYERS that he goes to bed
every night as does the ordinary NOR
tai and closes his eyes, but that he is
never in the state Of unconsciousness
which rests the brain. Instead, he is
as fully conscious of everything that
takes place within his range of hearing
as if he were sitting up in a chair and
intently listening. He hears every
passing footstep in the street, every
one he occupies and all the strange
noises Of the night.
Kelly, who is now 26 years old, is
native Of Rockford, o., near Cleveland.
In his eleventh year he suffered from
an attack of nervous prostration for six
months in a Cleveland hospital, and
his remarkable period of wakefulness
dates from that time. He came to this
city eight or ten years ago and secured
work at the Baldwin Locomotive works,
where he is still employed. As soon as
he had saved enough money to pay for
medical advice he sought it, hoping to
be enabled to satisfy a natural craving
for the sleep made impossible by his
shattered nervous system.
The doctors TO whom he applied, one
after another, including Dr. Costello,
formerly of Spring Garden street, above
Twenty-first, but now residing in Nice
town, advised the patient to give up the
use Of tobacco and coffee. Kelly is a
confirmed tobacco chewer and coffee
drinker, consuming about two ounces
OF the weed and a quart Of coffee every
day, but for several weeks at time
he has forsworn both tobacco and the
beverage without obtaining relief. on
the contrary such abstinence only made
MS nerves unsteady curing lue cay
and the medicines given him for the
building up Of his nervous system SEEM
ed to do no good.
The sufferer from this peculiar trou-
BILE usually retires between II and
o'clock and arises at half past 8. Some
times he becomes so wrought up over
his inability to sleep that he gets uI
an hour or two earlier and waits down
stairs until the time arrives for going
to his work. Even in the brief interval
that Kelly spends in bed each night he
obtains physical rest almost as salts
factory as if he had been asleep, but
the continued mental strain is telling
upon him. He Is Of slight build, and il
is strange that he has been able tC
bear up without brain rest for so Ions
a time He is very near sighted, and
this optical disorder was said by some
Of the physicians he consulted TO be z
result of insomnia.
Kellys friends have advised him e
consult the authorities at the Universe
ty hospital, and he has at last decided
to do so.