The Principles of Psychology

But it was impossible to convince him that for hours together he raved and acted in an abnormal way.” Another remarkable case is that of Mary Reynolds, lately republished again by Dr. Weir Mitchell.54 This dull and melancholy young woman, inhabiting the Pennsylvania wilderness in 1811, “was found one morning, long after her habitual time for rising, in a profound sleep from which it was impossible to arouse her. After eighteen or twenty hours of sleeping she awakened, but in a state of unnatural consciousness. Memory had fled. To all intents and purposes she was as a being for the first time ushered into the world. ‘All of the past that remained to her was the faculty of pronouncing a few words, and this seems to have been as purely instinctive as the wailings of an infant; for at first the words which she uttered were connected with no ideas in her mind.’ Until she was taught their significance they were unmeaning sounds.