The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1905-09-29

The evidence that has come to Iigat
thus far regarding the physical condi-
ton of the late Thomas H. Nall. the
patient at the state hospital who met
his death in an attempt TO escape from
that institution. both from the lips OF
experts and ordinary straight citizens,
shows the man constitution to have
presented such wonderful contradic-
ton as would appear TO necessitate a
revisal of some long established medi-
cal and surgical theories. So remark
able arethe paradoxes which are shown
to have existed in the physical make
up of the unfortunate man. sworn to
by witnesses whose credibility cannoe
be questioned, that the Post can not
refrain from calling the attention OF
it's readers TO some of them.
At the very outset is n Of the
strangest of them all. Although this
man mad enlargement of the heart.
both dilation and hypetrophy, also
dysponea and some dropsical symp-
toms and TRACES Of albumen, which
summed up is diagnosed as metral re-
9~Irgelation, still his general condition
was good physically!
He had difficulty in breathing when
going up stairs or even in helping to
sweep the floor Of his ward. and was
taking a tonic bv the physicians order,
was not allowed to take vigorous OK
ercise except to go to walk; but On
one of the hottest. most sultry after
moons of Angus he leads a desperate
breakneck race for about a mile and
a half across country, climbs a steep
hill at the end of it and then is able
to put up such a giant struggle to the
death with four able-bOdied young man
that they are compelled to knock him
in the head before they can do ny
thing with him. And finally, an hour
or so afterward, he caps the climax
by dying of exhaustion. It's a grea-
record of a marvellous case and de-
serves careful study by the physicians
of the world. 1t ought to be made the
subject of discussion at the next inter-
national congress of medical men.
The patient was noted for his tre7
mendous muscular power, had been ar
outdoor carpenter before he lost his
mind. and when he had left the hos
Dital a short time before it had taken
six or eight able bodied men to =
him and bring him back. And with
all that he died of exhaustion.
He seems to nave been immune to
cuts and bruises during the first part
of hat terrific race, and peculiarly
susceptible to them toward the end,
for although he plunged through barb
ed-wire fences, rolled into bitches and
fell among stones, still there was 10
mark upon him as he passed the Cara
leigh Mills after all these miShaps:
but a few minutes later he was cover
ed with blood from a cash on the head
to the bone. received from contact with
a ~barbed-wire fence. That must have
been a fierce ferce,for after butting n
to it Nall was unable to stand alone
or even hold his head up or speak a
word. However, he was not unCon-
scious at this time. A strange cOndi-
ton, surely.
This peculiar susceptibility to bruis-
es ever appears to have followed this
remarkable man after he was dead and
buried, and here is where this strange
case borders pom the supernatural.
When the captured patient was car
ried back to the hospital, an examine
ton showed that there were no bruises
or c%ontusions besides the cut on the
head and some superficial scratches on
the breast; yet when the body was
exhumed in Chatham county, there was
startling evidence that some miscrean1
had gotten down into the grave and
beaten the poor dead man, for his mead
and body both displayed numerous con-
tusions in various localities. Here is
a beautiful case for the Society for
Psychical Research to turn it's pene-
trating glasses upon.-Ra1eigh Post.