Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 July 1896 — THEY CANNOT WAKE HER UP [ARTICLE]

THEY CANNOT WAKE HER UP

STUDY OF A CASE THAT IS TYPICAL OF MANY. Caused by Singing a Pathetic Song What is the Mystery of Such Long Sleeps?—-The'Matady Is Spreading.' A woman lies In one of the wards of the New York Hospital at the present time whose condition lias excited universal attention for several weeks past, as told in the Herald. She is Mrs. Monroe H. Hosenfeld. the wife of a musical eomi>oser. Previous to her removal to the hospital referred to Mrs. Rosenfeld lay at her home in Jay street. Brooklyn, for seventeen consecutive days in a semi-comatose condition without partaking of a particle of nourishment. During this jieriod she was visited by a dozen of the best physicians of Brooklyn. among these the celebrated neurologist, Professor John Shaw, of the Long Island College Hospital; the well known practitioners. Drs. Henry Noss, O’Grady. Stone. Dixon, former Health Commissioner Dr. John Griffon and many others, all of whom failed to arouse the sufferer from her lethargic condition or to afford any permanent relief. In his natural desire to relieve the suffering of his wife, Mr. Rosenfeld admitted to her bedside a host of so-called hypnotists, magnetic curists. Christian scientists, massage specialists, believers in the universal efficacy of oxygen as a remedial agent, and others whose sympathy overran their knowledge. Unlike the somewhat similar case of Morris Front, the so-called boy sleeper, at the Betli-Israel Hospital, who was isolated from the public by his doctors, no one was denied admittance to Mrs. Rosenfeld’s bedside while she was at home.

Notwithstanding the publicity given to the case, no definite remedy was suggested and no material benefit to the sufferer was obtained. As a last resort. and by the advice of the medical fraternity in Brooklyn, generally, Mrs. Rosenfeld was removed to the New York Hospital and has remained there ever since in practically the same condition as she was when she was taken from her home, with the exception that during the last few days the consulting physician of the hospital, Dr. A. B. Ball, has succeeding in inducing the patient to partake of small quantities of liquid nourishment, barely sufficient to support life The physicians generally in attendance ui>on the patient have practically agreed that she is suffering from what is known in France as “grande hysteria,” otherwise known as hysterioepilepsy. A great deal of attention has been given to this disease by the celebrated French hypnotist, Charcot, and by Boumeville and Regnard and P. Richer, most of these distinguished scientists pursuing their investigations in the Salpetriere, in Paris. Of all diseases to which human flesh is heir hysteria seems to be one of the most complex and the least understood.

The disease is rather one of the mind than one of the body. If, for example, a woman falls into the water or gets burned or tumbles down stairs, and thereby develops hysteria, the mistake is often made of ascribing the disease to catching cold or to the injury received, although it really was the mental excitement which produced it. An analagous instance of this is found in the case of Mrs. Rosenfeld. The incident which resulted practically in her collapse was the singing of a song. One day her husband had inserted an advertisement for a servant, and had thereby secured the services of a domestic. The girl came and worked half a day, and was then discharged by the hysterical woman for no apparent cause. Later in the day, after the insertion of a like advertisement in an evening paper, he secured another servant. Unable to bear the unreasonable treatment of her mistress, this girl also left. This annoyed Mr. Rosenfeld a great deal,, as during the previous week several servants had been discharged in a like manner. He then upbraided his wife forcibly for her erratic conduct, which brought the tears to her eyes, and she exclaimed pathetically:— “You’ll be sorry when I’m gone.” Touched by the humor and pathos of the situation and alive to the inspiration, Mr. Rosenfeld wont to the piano and composed a song with the title of his wife’s remark. On the following day, when the song was completed, in the presence of a number of visitors, Mrs. Rosenfeld attempted to sing the song to her husband's accompaniment, but, overcome by the association of ideas, when she reached the chorus, which runs as follows:

None to fondle and caress you, None to brush your tears away, None to care for you in sadness, When you’re feeble and grown gray, None to take you to his bosom, None to call you then his own, None to care if dead or living, You’ll be sorry when I’m gone. the singer fell upon the lounge, weeping hysterically, and lapsed into the lethargic condition in which she has remained ever since. The remarkable sensitiveness of women to hystericalemotional condition generally was shown upon every one of the women present, who began to weep in sympathy with the sufferer. Mrs. Rosenfeld has been closely confined in the New York Hospital for the last two weeks. She is being treated in an interestingly original manner by the hospital physicians. This treatment consists of almost absolute isolation. None of her friends, and not even her husband has been allowed to speak to her while at the hospital. The theory of Dr. Ball, who has the patipnt in charge, is that isolation will give her an entire change of emotional conditions. Deprived of the society of her husband and of the household pets by which she has been surrounded many years, the doctors are of the opinion that isolation will produce a beneficial effect by the reason of the new surroundings and a production of the physical condition of the mind hitherto unknown to her. While isolation is a comparatively new treatment in America, it has been tried with success by the German physicians and also by Charcot, the celebrated French expert. Dr. A. B Ball, of the New York Hospital, Is of the opinion that the emotions can be so •teeled against a supersensitive condition that entire auiet and isolation * /

will restore a normal state to the min* and body Although Mrs. Rosenfeld constantly moans for tin* society of her husband, and in her delirium incessantly repeats his name, the doctors think it absolutely inadvisable to admit him into her | presence. They are willing that he should see her face, listen to her voice, be near her, but her eyes must not rest ujiou him. Therefore, while wearily waiting for the rec-overy of his wife, Mr. Rosenfeld visits the hospital daily. He goes up into the ward where she is confined, peers in through the door and looks upon his wife’s face. Day after day this weary vigil has been continued. but no glance of intelligence has cheered the weary visitant. Still, pale, wan and emaciated, the woman lies in her tranced condition and knows not of her husband’s watchful care. The physicians all concur in the belief that while Mrs. Rosenfeld's higher consciousness is in the abeyance, she is still cognizant of what is going on about her, although in that cataleptic condition which prevents her from expressing her wishes. Some of the higher medical authorities say she is practically in the mental state which is a counterfeit of sleep. In facL she is suffering from a protracted nightmare. This is proved by the fact that when the ambulance came to remove her to the hospital she was cognizant that she was about to lie removed from her home, and made a feeble, inarticulate effort to express her fear of removal. That she has not at any time lost her consciousness completely is proven by her feeble effort in the hospital to express the desire to see her husband. Few similar eases have excited such interest as that of Mrs. Rosenfeld. The investigations growing out of her ease have called particular attention to the Alarming increase of hysteria in its graver forms during the past few years. Not one of the physicians who have been in attendance upon the case but lias commented upon the increasing prevalence of this disease, and no contemporaneous disease affords such complexity of symptoms as hysteria. A Brooklyn physician was called only last week to treat a similar case in a milder form. As is usual, a woman was the sufferer. She sobbed and acted like a spoiled child. The first impulse of the physician was to throw a glass of ice odd water into her face. But such action was prevented by the overzealousness of her relatives. This calls attention to the necessity of isolation in such cases. When surrounded by loving but medically ignorant friends the patient cannot be treated in a scientific manner. Many doctors concur in the belief that in the milder forms of hysteria a good trouncing would be more efficacious than a ton of medicine. The reasoning along this line is that such treatment would be such a violent departure from precedent that the patient would be surprised and shocked back into a normal and healthful condition. In the case of Mrs. Monroe H. Rosenfeld, now at the New York Hospital, the physicians can give no definite idea as to how long she may remain in her present condition. It is altogether a matter of conjecture as to whether the treatment of isolation will be beneficial in her case.