Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1913-09-03
Instances Which 0utshine Dr..
JekyII and Mr.. Hyde.
Account of One Woman Who Had as
Many as Ten Personalities-Eng-
Iish Doctors Theory-Many
Strange HaIlucinations.

London-Dr. Jekyll and Mr.. Hyde
must look to their laurels. British
scientists have uncovered instances
of human beings who possessed as
many as ten different personalities.
One in particular could change her
mood every hour in the day.
A remarkable example is that of
William Sharp, who shook off his
male mental characteristics and be-
came a woman in heart and mind.
Sharp when youth ran away and
Joined band of gypsies. When he
returned to society he took up litera-
ture and decided he wanted to become
a poet He found he could not por-
tray his ideals while plain William
Sharp.
He would sit down, take upon him
self feminine tone and write books
as Fiona Macleod.
He used to say he could write out
of his 9heart In way he could not
do as William Sharp. Fiona always
was spoken of as a separate person,
and he even wrote letters to her.
There was a real difference in the
literary style, and even in the hand
writing
Another case was that of a Miss
Beauchamp, who had what is describ-
ed as a multiple personality. 1t was
recorded of her that she could change
her personality hour by hour In one
of her characters she was described
as a saint, very prim and rigidly con-
scientious, quite incapable of dishon-
esty. In another character she re-
Taxed somewhat, and in the third per-
sonality she was known as Sally,
chiefly because of her mischievous,
troublesome and nasty behavior.
Miss Beauchamp like most women.
disliked spiders intensely. but it was
astonishing to find that her third per-
sonality, Sally, loved them and col
lected them in her trinket box. Often
she would scream on discovering the
very spider she had so carefully
placed in the trinket box herself.
Sally would write letters to people
to whom Miss Beauchamp would not
speak In this way she found herself
in for appointments with persons she
would not think of meeting as Miss
Beauchamp.
1t was easy to see which character
was in possession by the way she
walked. by the clothes she wore and
by the manner in which she shook
hands.
Again there was the case Of the
Rev Ansel Baughan, who awoke one
day to find himself living under the
name of Brown a long way from his
home He had wandered there and
had been living there for two months,
keeping shop.
These extraordinary cases of dual
personality are eclipsed by this case:
This woman evidenced the possession
of no fewer than ten different person
alities. one of which was. of course,
her normal self. Her abnormal
states were:
l. A childish mood, in which she
referred to herself as thing. or a
good thing, even signing letters in
this fashion.
2 A passionate mood, in which she
became intensely trate, and even went
so far as to bite her clothes. This
personality was very much better edu-
Gated than that OF the thing. and the
letters written by her while under
Its influence were in vastly different
handwriting During this mood she
referred to herself as Old Nick.
g. Every now and again the pa
tient became deaf and dumb. During
these stages she would communicate
with her fellows only by talking on
her fingers. the method of which Ian
guage she understood slightly in her