Show GIRL HAS SLEPT WITHOUT WAKING FOR ONE MONTH Bessie Knecht is Slumbering iI i I Her Life Away PECULIAR CASE AT HOSPITAL Is Fed With Liquid Food but Grows Constantly Thinner Her Condition Is Due Either to Hysteria Hys-teria or to Somo Obscure Injury In-jury of the Brain I For the past twentyeight days Bessie Bes-sie Knecht has been asleep During that time she has not spoken a word nor had to all appearances a waking moment She put In the first week of her ilunibcr at the home of her parents pa-rents In North Salt Lake and the last three weeks at the Holy Cross hospital It Is a very remarkable case and the hospital stuff Is at a loss to account for her condition HAD SCARLET FEVER Miss Knecht Is about 22 years oC age Since she had the I scarlet fever several years ago she has been afflicted with a catarrhal affection which impaired her hearing She was employed at one of the city laundries The other laundry girls thoughtlessly made sport of her because oC her allllctlon and this worried wor-ried Bessie considerably QUARRELED WITH COMPANIONS About a month ago this teasing caused a quarrel between the girl and her companions After this incident she ceased to speak This was regarded as an exhibition of temper and even when she conll1 I her silence ut home her people thouJT t t it i was due to perversity per-versity and ptild little attention to her until a short time afterward she lapsed into unconsciousness Then a physician was called In nnd many attempts at-tempts made to urousc her from her slumber EXPERIMENTS AT HOSPITAL After she had been In this state for a week she was taken to the hospital and examined by the staff but her condition con-dition has remained unchanged She lies with closed eyes breathing naturally natu-rally day after day and night after night At long intervals she raises her eyelids a little but never opens them When the attendants raise the lids by force she squints as any heavy sleeper would do When she Is tapped on the forehead she flinches and Is seemingly annoyed but gives no other evidence of consciousness CONSTANTLY LOSING FLESH She Is fed at suitable Intervals with liquid food which she swallows automatically auto-matically when It Is poured down her throat but In spite of this nourishment she Is gradually wasting away and is from fifteen to twenty pounds lighter than when she went to sleep It Is the belief at the hospital that unless something some-thing Is done to relieve her sIte will soon paas from sleep to death through the exhaustion of the vital forces When she Is rained to a sitting posture a discharge stained with blood exudes from her nostrils CAUSE OF HER CONDITION Tier condition Is due cither to hysteria hys-teria or what is more probable some obscure injury to the brain such as an abscess or a tumor The discharge from the nose gives weight to the latter theory It Is possible that an operation will be resorted to If all other treatment treat-ment should fall |