Year: 1878




knocks the bottom out of all existing
medical thesis, and is, in a word. mir
aculous."


did you ever, asked the reporter,
make an experiment to satisfy your
professional accuracy in regard to
her abstinence?"


Several times l have given her
emetics on purpose to discover the
truth ;but the result always confirmed
the statement that she had taken no
food. 1t sounds strangely, but it is
so. have taken every precaution
against deception, sometimes going
into the house at eleven or twelve
o'clock at night, without being an
nounced, but have always found her
the same, and lying in the same po-
sition occupied by her for the entire
period Of her invalidity. The springs
of her bedstead are actually worn out
by the constant pressure. My breth-
rem in the medical profession at first
were inclined to laugh at me. and call
me fool and spiritualist when 1 told
them Of the long abstinence and keen
mental powers of my interesting pa
tient. But such as have been admit
ted to see her are convinced. These
are DR.. Ormiston, DR.. Elliott and DIR.
Hutchinson, some of the best talent
in the city, who have seen and be-
lieved."


The story Of Miss Fanshers acci-
dent and its melancholy consequent
ces is quite affecting. 1t is collected
from the various statements given
by half dozen friends of the family
to the Herald reporter. interviewer
with it Is a thread Of romance, a tale
OF early love and courtship, of life
embittered by cruel accident, OF pa
tient waiting and a final release OF
the suitor from his engagement to
marry another.


Mary's parents lived in a stumptu-
Gus dwelling on Washington avenue,
Brooklyn, and were reported to be
wealthy. Their favorite daughter
Mollie, as she was called, was sent to
Professor Vests high school in
Brooklyn at an early age, and here
developed many brilliant qualities Of
mind and heart which augured well
for her future. At seventeen she was
pretty, petite and we'll cultivated. As
a member Of the washington-avenu
Baptist Sunday school she met and
learned to love a classmate named
John Taylor. An engagement fol.
lowed the intimacy of the Sunday
school class, and the young people
looked forward with buoyant spirits
to the bright life so soon ta dawn up
on them.


But fate decreed differently. While
getting of a Fulton street car one
day in 1864, on her return from
school, the young lady slipped and
fell backward. Her skirt caught on
the step unseen by the conductor,
who started the car on its way again.
The poor girl was dragged some ten
or fifteen yards before her cries were
heard and the brake applied. When
picked up she was iRsensible and was
carried. suffering intense agony from
an injured spine, TO her home near
by. Forty-eight honrs afterward she
was seized with a violent spasm
which lastsd for over two days. Then
came a trance, when the sufferer grew
cold and rigid, with no evidence of
life beyond a warm spot under the
left breast, where feeble pulsations OF
her heart were detected by DIR.
Spier. Only this gentleman believed
she was alive, and it was due to his
constant assertion Of her ultimate re-
covery that Miss Fansher was not bur-
led. Despite the best medical help
and the application Of restoratlves no
change was brought about in the pa
tents condition until the tenth week,
when the strange suspension OF life
ceased and breath was no more in
hailed and breatbed forth from her
lungs.


To their dismay the doctors then
found that Mollie had lost her sight
and the power of the deglutition, the
latter affiiction rendering it impossi-
BILE for her TO swallow food or even
articulate by the use of tongue or lip.
Previous to her trance moderate
quantity of food had been given her
each day, bnt since then she has not
taken a mo1thful OF life- sustaining
food. Spasms and frances alternate
with alarming frequency since Miss
Fansher was first attacked. First her
limbs only became rigid and distur-
bed at the caprice of her strange
malady. but as time passed her whole
frame would writhe as il In great
pain, requiring to be held by main
force in order to remain in the bed.
She could swallow nothing and lay
utterly helpless until moved.


Although one of the most import
ant of the senses, that of seeing. was
thus cut of, it was soon discovered
that by some phenomenal means
Miss Fansher made up the deficiency
by what may be called second sight"
Though unable to sec. yet she can
work, night as well as day, upon her
wax flowers and embroidery, requir-
ing great nicety and taste in the Sc
lection of colors. When questioned
Al.