Iditarod pioneer., 1913-11-15
STRANGE CASES OF
 DUAL PERSONALITY

A remarkable article in the Practitioner by Sir George Savage, lecturer on mental diseases at Guys hospital London, seems to indicate that phenomena of dual person atty approaching very nearly Stevenson's famous phantasy of "Dr. Jekyll and Mir Hyde" are occasionally discovered by those whose studies bring them in contact with he mysteries of the abnormal human mlnd
 Tie article is entitled "Automatism,7 which the writer defines broadly as ''the con .ition in which conn Heated mental proc esses give rise to complicated reactions to the surroundings, which are not recollectcJ in the ordinary waking and normal state
 Sir George divides Lis eases of more seri- Us automatism into three groups In the first there is no epilepsy, in the second fits are fol owed by automatic acts, and in the third replaced by them, IIo gives two ter rble instances of the first two groups. In one man killed his wife, in the other mother wounded her child with a knife. Both man and woman were unconscious what they were doing.
 'In the third group,' continues the writer, Eve find cases like that of cer- ain country squire of middle age, of hralthy active habits, with no hereditary l~tcry of any neur;tis, who came to Lon don to consult his solicitor on a certain Tuesday morning. The lawyer asked him to cal again at 3 o'clock He did not re turn, but finding himself near his lawyers office some Cays later at about 3 30, he went ta,re. believing the day still Tues ay and flat he vas only half an hour late as a resrlt of his watch having stopped He could not believe that the hour WAS 3 80 md the day Friday He then recognized that he had not shaved, but he seemed to ha,e wa.t ed, dressed and eaten regularly Y, certainly had not been drinking. He
 glI not trace where he had been or what ae had dane, but it is clear that there had been nothing abnormal in his conduct to lead anyone to suppose him to be out of his mind"
 Not the least interesting part Of this ex- 'raorGiIagy question of automatlsm, dual CT n4lty lss of memory whatever may be the correct title for each instance-is its is al a.ptyt, and how far the author of r:ne, committed while in an abnormal state is amcuabla to the criminal law To what extent must JelyIl suffer for the mis- 'no'< f Mir Hyde? This is Sir George Savage's view: T have on several occa-
 . ,,,n a-led to dotcnei feni&Ie klepto- .I.>c> on the plea of uucon>ciou>ness but have gcraralIy declined, although I admit
 is possible fer thie,lng, a1roi.Iy done and .:t1 &.a.eat ell le4yor If coneealment, to
 w 4n c~l,ptic seizure"
 Another famous men.a al specialist, asked is views on this point, said Serious .rimes 2, well as Ietty tAcijs c@n, of course, aa quite rnconsciou.ly committed and no
 emery of what has been done may be ...a.acd. This Vas theory in the notori- Us |ack the Ripper cases"
 An! Dr. 1ei,yIl and Mir Hyde? Do they
 IT does he -exlstl'
 Y have known of ca-cs so e>tr&or4inary," was the refly that the actual physical ap- .earance of the patient is different during Iii, reri1u of aberratinn I have known a physically sound and normaI man to de .eIoo paralysis of an arm or some other rn.b or alteration of facial expression, in syErathy with the aJnormaltics of his m;na"