Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1911-02-28
alisesllaneuas 8eadins.
DUAL PERSONALITIES.
Some Historic Cases-Results of In
iuries to the Brain-Lost Memory.

thing.
OF the loss of memory many cases
are familiar. One of the most curious
was that of a man who had been 9
cork cutter in England, says the Lon
don Daily Graphic, and went out to
America leaving a family behind him
He was wrecked and lost all memory
of his former life. He became we'll to
do and prosperous and it was only by
the accident of going over a cork cut
ting factory that he recovered the clue
to his former personality. His think
ing brain was unstirred, but that part
of the brain which directs muscular
action enabled him by an act Of uncon-
scious memory to cut a cork-an act
which no unpracticed person could do
1t was clear then that he had once
been a cork cutter, and the institu-
ton of further inquiries finally identi-
fled him.
To return, however to the cases OF
duplex personality. The first one re-
corded historically is that of a youth
named Sorgel, in Bavaria, who was an
epileptic, and in one of the relapses
into a criminal frame Of mind which
followed on his epileptic seizures killed
a woodcutter. He made no attempt to
defend or hide his act, but childishly
explained it. He continued thus for a
week after the crime, when his first
personality was restored to him. He
then completely forgot all the occur
rences that had preceded or followed
the murder. Although this case took
place nearly 100 years ago his judges
were convinced of his innocence. Sor-
gel afterward died in a lunatic asylum.
The larger number of these instances
Of dual personality follow on epilepsy,
but one is recorded by DR.. Drewry of
Virginia, 1896, of Mr.. K. Mr.. K, while
apparently in perfect health, went to a
northern town to transact some busi-
ness, which he did quite ably and ra-
tionally. He then disappeared. He
was given up for dead. Then, six
months afterward, he was found,
brought home again, a changed man in
mind and body. The six months inter-
val was a blank to him and always
remained so. He had spent them as an
odd job man in a southern state. His
recovery dated from the breaking down
Of a growth in his auditory canal which
had undoubtedly affected his brain In
physical sense.
But of the more curious cases OF
double personality, which did not begin
and leave off suddenly, but which en-
dured for a number Of years, there are
a number Of instances. One was Miss
Mary Reynolds, who for fifteen or six
teen years had two states Of existence
in one of which she was melancholy,
morbid young woman and in the other
gay, hysterical, mischievous child.
The alternations, in which the child
state lasted from five to six weeks, con-
tinued at intervals of varying length
for fifteen or sixteen years, but finally
ceased. when she attained the age Of
35 or SO, leaving her permanently in
her secondary or acquired state. The
emotional opposition Of the two states
had, however, become gradually re-
duced, and the third state at which she
eventually arrived was rational state,
removed from both of them.
There are cases of multipleX per-
sonality, of which the best known IS
that of the epileptic Luiso Vive, WHOSE
different states were distinguished by
different forms of paralysis, as we'll as
by entirely different moral proclivities,
and there is the curious case of Miss
Beauchamp, a patient of DR.. Morton
Prince a full account Of which was
given to the International Congress Of
Psychology, Paris, in 1900.
Miss Beauchamp was a neurasthenic
but clever young woman, who over
worked at college. She was Of NOR
bidly conscientious and rather reserved
disposition. She was hypnotized in
order to try the power Of suggestion,
and out of one of these hypnotic
frances emerged a new Miss Beau
champ--a person entirely different
from the original Miss Beauchamp in
manners, ideals, education and tenn
permanent. This new Miss Beauchamp
was called Sally" Beauchamp, and one
of the peculiarities of her mischievous
temper was a profound dislike of the
other Miss Beauchamp." The case is
too complex and too curious for COM
plete summary here, but it presents
the amazing fact that in one brain
may reside the possibility Of the exist
ence of two entirely different beings,
different in mind, thought, disposition,
health and temper.
Last week a magistrate was called
on to deal with the case Of young
man who was normally sober, indus
trious and honest, but who in an inter-
val of relapse from his normal self and
consciousness committed a theft. The
young man had been an epileptic and
it was suggested in his defence that he
had been and still was subject to
states of mind in which his usual, nor
NAL. honest self had no existence for
him. He forgot it. He was in fact
another person. He had another
brain, another mind. The magistrate
was broadminded enough to accept
this explanation. which to psycholo-
gists and to specialists in diseases Of
the brain is a perfectly just and rea-
sonable one. Of double personality,
one that is familiar and quite credi-
BILE to people who have never studied
the particular aspect of brain abnor-
mality-known as duplex or multipleX
personalities that of a person who
loses his memory through shock or
sudden injury to the brain. Ordinary
concussion of the brain often produces
complete forgetfulness Of incidents
which took place during a number of
hours before the cOncussion occurred;
and it is followed by similar forgetful-
ness and often by an inability to dis
tinguish between the real and the un-
real