It appeared that his vision had improved since the day of the explosion; though he could read for a short time only when things became blurred, and only with the type close to the eyes. Bowels had not opened for five days. Vision in right eye was 5/60; left eye, 2/60.
Tested for smell, he failed to smell peppermint, ether, iodin tincture, and carbolic acid 1-40. Sugar was tasted only after tongue movements were permitted, as was also a strong solution of salt. Acid tasted salty like alum. The patient complained that he did not sleep, though in point of fact he slept well.
The patient was treated by suggestion, both in hypnosis and without, when he was transferred on the 31st of December, to the London Temperance Hospital, whence he was discharged. The treatment by suggestion occurred daily. At the second trial and thereafter, light hypnosis was easily induced, but the deeper stages, with hallucinations, anesthesia, and post-hypnotic anesthesia, could not be reached. The lighter stages brought about sleep, a gradual restoration of memory, and later an improvement in visual and olfactory acuity; in near vision, in visual fields, and in color sensibility.
The stages in the restoration of memory are as follows: December 22, he was able to describe how he was buried, how Sergeant L. dug him out, how men of another regiment than his own took him to a dressing station, whence he was packed off by the M. O. to the dressing station of his own regiment. Capt. S. had spoken to him and given him a drink. Post-hypnotic suggestion caused him to remember this latter fact after he had come out from hypnosis.
December 23, even before hypnosis, he could remember a big hospital with a stove in the center of a big square room, and gave a fragmentary account of struggling in the trench after being buried, and of going to sleep and enjoying himself at home, when somebody started messing him about. In hypnosis, he gave further details of his dreams after falling asleep in the buried state.
December 26, further details were remembered before hypnosis, such as a ride in the motor ambulance, offers of tea, cocoa, sweets, and cigarettes, a bad headache, and the like.
December 27, in hypnosis, he was able to describe with apparent accuracy the position of the trenches and their appearance. He said:
“The explosion lifted us up and dropped us again. It seemed as if the ground underneath had been taken away. I was lying on my right side, resting on my right hand, when the shell came. I got my right hand loose but my wrist was fixed behind a piece of fallen timber. At last I dropped off to sleep and had funny dreams of things at home. One thing in particular I have thought of many times since, I have not been able to make out why I should dream of the young lady playing the piano. I don’t know her name and I don’t think I have seen her above twice.”
According to Myers, it is questionable how far the patient’s memory can be trusted; and there is considerable doubt whether the man had remained in the trench for more than an hour after the shell had burst. A comrade said that the doctors at the barn thought the man off his head. Another soldier, familiar with the positions of the regiments in question, gave information suggesting that the patient had wandered in a somnambulistic state from the trench, past his own dressing station to that of another regiment.
Re Shell-shock and burial cases, compare remarks of Grasset and of Foucault concerning the feeling as if dead on the part of certain buried persons. Somnambulism is a natural sequel to such feelings. For somnambulism, compare cases of Milian (364, 365, and 366).