Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 15.djvu/477

 began with the most elementary lessons, but made much more rapid progress than a person who had never before been taught. Very soon after the torpor left her, she could sing many of her old songs, and play on the piano-forte with little or no assistance; and she has since continued to practice her music, which now affords her great pleasure and amusement. In singing, she at first generally required to be helped to the first two or three words of a line, and made out the rest apparently from memory. She can play from the music-book several tunes which she had never seen before; and her friends are inclined to think that she now plays and sings fully as well, if not better, than she did previously to her illness. She learned backgammon, which she formerly knew, and several games at cards with very little trouble; and she can now knit worsted, and do several other sorts of work; but with regard to all these acquirements, as already mentioned, it is remarkable that she appears not to have the slightest remembrance of having possessed them before, although it is plain that the process of recovery has been greatly aided by previous knowledge, which, however, she seems unconscious of having ever acquired. When asked how she had learned to play the notes of music from a book, she replied that she could not tell, and only wondered why her questioner could not do the same.

She has once or twice had dreams, which she afterward related to her friends, and she seemed quite aware of the difference between a dream and a reality; indeed, from several casual remarks which she makes of her own accord, it would appear that she possesses many general ideas of a more or less complex nature, which she has had no opportunity of acquiring since her recovery.

In this way she has continued slowly but progressively to improve, and it is now considerably more than two months since she recovered from her sleep. Her bodily health has since then undergone little change: she is still liable to be fatigued by slight exertion, after which she is inclined to sleep; but in this state She never remains long except during the night, when she sleeps like another person. The catamenia have twice appeared, viz., in September and in October, at both times to a greater extent than usual; her bowels still require laxative medicine; but her appetite continues good, and she has evidently gained flesh since her recovery.

(March, 1879).—After a time Mrs. Hwas able to return to her home in England, where she passed the rest of her life happily with her husband, and gave birth to a daughter, who survives her. She was in the habit of corresponding by letter with her friends at a distance, and lived on the most agreeable terms with her immediate neighbors, by whom she was held in much regard on account of her kindly nature and charitable work.—Brain.