FIFTEEN YEARS OF LIFE A BLANK.

Inangahua Times, Volume II, 21 January 1881, Page 2

FIFTEEN YEARS OF LIFE A BLANK.

The New York Sun's correspondent writing from Syracuse on August sth, says : — ln a plain but neat little storey and-a-half white house. 140, Townsend street, lives a -iernian girl named Amelia Hoscb, who passed her 2f th birthrday on the 15th January last. The greater part or 1 her life — fuliy 15 years — has been a blank. In her child* hood Amelia was considered an uuu* eually bright girl. She early learned to read and Arite both English and German, and could play the piano with considerable skill. When between 10 and 1 1 years of age she was attacked with fever and ague. This soon de* veloped into hysterical fits, and in a few weeks the girl loat her reason Her po.ver of speech left her, and her limbs refused to support her. She became a helpless imbecile, and did cot leave her bed except when lifted from it. From four to eight times a nigbt and from two to six timed a day she was seized with the most violent paroxysms. Many times it was thought that she was drawing her last breath. Medicines of every kind were tried, but withouc effect. Il March, 1879' Dr A. H. Tackle visited the girl, and made a diagnosis of her case .He combined a prepa ration of his own. with one obtained from a professor in Columbia College, New York. The second night after Amelia began taking the preparation sbe slept all night, something, she had not done before for fifteen years. She began to increase in flesh, and in Juue uttered the first words she had spoken since shd was first attacked. Gradually her powers of speech returned, and with it her memory. The pariod of her mental* slumber is a blank, and she is more of a child than a woman, except in years. She telis of what she saw in her childhaod, and sings the songs that she used to siog iii her Suaday scLogl. Although she has received no instruction since her recovery, she caa read, wri^s, and figure, aud do everything that she did before she lost her reasoa, Wiiea asked about her illness she looks at the buesfcioner Jin a wondering way — sbe knows nothiug about it. She now weighs about 140 pounds — nearly twice as much as she did before she began takiog the preparation She is a strong healthy looking young woman. She articulates rather slowly, but her replies are prompt and correct. While talking with the correspoudent of the Suu, she said. "I know everything I 1 used to know," She likes to talk

aDd embraces every opportunity tc converse that is offered. The case ex« cites the wonder of physicao3 and r great many have called to see the girl,