Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 139, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 June 1912 — REGAINS HIS SENSES [ARTICLE]

REGAINS HIS SENSES

Man Lost Memory by Accident; Stroke Restores it. Pittsburgher, Conscious of Identity Gone Seven Years, Recovers It Through Attack of ParalysisRemembers Old Friends. Pittsburg, Pa.—Changed by an accident so greatly that be could not recognize family or friends or recall events of the 50 years of his life, Samuel Edleman has now, after seven years of the new mental existence, been switched back to the first by a paralytic stroke, and the seven year period is as greatly a blank as had been his first 50 years. He has resumed at fifty-seven the trend of events as be knew them at fifty, and keeps his family busy telling him what manner of man he was during the intervening years. Edleman was a blacksmith’s helper, when a piece of steel flew from under a hammer and penetrated his brain, destroying his memory. As many fever patients are obliged to learn to walk anew after leaving hospitals, l Edleman was compelled to learn to use his brain a second time. Edleman after the accident did not recognize his wife, his half grown children or his friends. He knew nothing of the blacksmith trade and nothing of the city in which he was born. But his mind was easily trained*® second- time,- and his physical efficiency aided. He was set up in a shoe repairing business, earned fair sums, became a motorman, and during the last census was one of the enumerators. He made new friends, among them those Who had known him before his injury, but he could not place their Identities except as jjart of his new existence. It was ablor him. io realize that the woman and children who served him, so devotedly were his wife and children. Then came a • slight stroke of paralysis. He was in bed only a few days. It was warm weather. Edleman, who had been hurt seven years before in the winter time, sat up suddenly and demanded to know what had caused the change from such extreme cold to the beautiful spring day._ “And, Mary, how fat you are,” he exclaimed. Mrs. Edleman had grown very stout during the seven years. Then Edleman’s oldest daughter came In. She was a young woman and he did not recognize her at first. Soon friends of his blacksmith, days came in, summoned by Mrs. Edleman, and he recognized them instantly, but

when a man with whom he had worked for two years for the street railroad entered Edleman— did not know him. Edleman inquired tor his brother, and although he had attended the brother’s funeral three years ago he refused to believe that brother was dead. Finally he began to wonder how he had conducted himself dur-

ing the seven years. His wife assured him he had been upright and honest, and had made more jnoney than ever before in his life. That phase of the second existence appealed to Edleman, and he conceived the idea of undergoing an operation in an endeavor to restore himself to that condition, but physicians convinced him of its Impossibility.