A contribution to the study of shell shock : being an account of three cases of loss of memory, vision, smell, and taste, admitted into the Duchess of Westminster's War Hospital, Le Touquet / by Charles S. Myers.

  • Myers, Charles S. (Charles Samuel), 1873-1946.
Date:
1915?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A contribution to the study of shell shock : being an account of three cases of loss of memory, vision, smell, and taste, admitted into the Duchess of Westminster's War Hospital, Le Touquet / by Charles S. Myers. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Someone fell on me and woke me up. I ‘ tumbled to things a bit ’ when they got me out. I got up and then fell down, and it was all a ‘ wash out.’ ” Under hypnosis he confirms the above, adding that in his struggles in the trench he “ said a prayer or two,” and that when he fell asleep he thought himself in the R. Hotel at S., where he had lived for years and is well known. “I was listening to a young lady I know [not intimately] playing the piano. I saw Mr. S. [the landlord] and Mrs. S. The sleep and dreams kept coming and going. It was dark when they dug me out. After I got out a chap said ‘ the fellow’s mad,’ and I said ‘ You’re a liar.’.Now, I remember a place between the barn and the hospital, rather a smart building, a long, low place. I was on a stretcher there. I must have got there by a horse ambulance, but I cannot remember this.” Dec. 26th.—Before hypnosis he recalls goingto the clearing hospital (just mentioned) from the barn in a horse ambu¬ lance on a stretcher at midnight. He says : “ I can remember talking to a major the next morning and having a sleeping draught at night. Then I went to another hospital at B. I had a ride in a motor ambulance on a stretcher, but whether this was from or to that hospital I cannot remember. I remember the journey in the train here distinctly. There were continual offers of tea, cocoa, sweets, and cigarettes. They wouldn’t let us sleep for these things. I had a bad headache all the way down from the trenches. I did not bother much about my sight, as I thought it was imaginary. It wasn’t until I got rid of the pain in my stomach which I came in with that I began to find my sight wouldn’t let me read.” Bee. 27th.— While in hypnosis he gives the name of the man in the same trench with him as K. He “ sees ” very clearly the position of the trenches, their shallowness and covering. He remembers that he had been two days in the reserve trenches before he was sent on Dec. 7th to the firing line. He says, ‘ ‘ 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 side, resting on my hand, when the shell came, I got my right hand loose, but my left was fixed behind a piece of fallen timber. At last I dropped off to sleep and had funny dreams of things at home. One dream in particular I have thought over many times since. I haven’t been able to make out why I should- dream of the young lady playing the piano. I don’t know her name and don’t think I have seen her above twice.” Dec. 29th.—Before hypnosis he says that he can now “ see ” the N.’s dressing station—a one-storeyed house with two non-communicating rooms. He was taken first into the left-hand room, and later into the other in which the medical