IIO THE FEEBLY INHIBITED. 



chain him up and burn him, etc. April 1889 he was found dead in his 

 room, having cut his throat with a table knife which the attendant failed 

 to miss from the table the evening before. (Diagnosis: recurrent 

 mania.) 



Another Kings Park case is that of C. M., female, who has always 

 been nervous and laughed easily. At 1 9 she began to lead an irregular 

 sexual life. At 23 she married and became confined with child in 

 July 1907. A few days later she became restless, excited, fearful, and 

 tried to climb out of the window. Placed in a State hospital, she 

 expressed remorse and anxiety. Later she grew excited, jumped out 

 of bed, tried to escape by the window ; said she felt like tearing herself 

 to pieces. In March 1913 was actively disturbed, noisy, restless, 

 assaultative, hallucinated, and in July apparently attempted suicide 

 by strangling herself. 



Another patient, C. M., male, about 17 years old, on December 22 

 made vicious assaults, kicked, growled, shouted, and on the 24th 

 attempted to strangle himself with a sheet. On other occasions when 

 he was disturbed, excited, assaultive, he showed suicidal tendencies. 

 And, again, a woman of 32, always nervous and excitable, in a particu- 

 larly disturbed period impulsively smashed windows and attacked 

 those about her; said she heard voices telling her to kill herself; and 

 on one occasion attempted to strangle herself with a part of her skirt. 



Hammond (1883, p. 538) cites the case of a middle-aged man who 

 rather suddenly developed hyperkinetic periods with quieter intervals. 

 In one of these periods he attempted to cut his throat. The suicidal 

 attempts of many alcoholics are of this type. And of this type is the 

 propositus in our history 3. One December she became noisy and 

 talked loudly, accused her mother-in-law of poisoning the baby, and 

 threw herself out of the window. In our history No. i, the mother's 

 brother, having been reproached by his sister, said he wouldn't stand 

 that, threatened to kill himself, and took some "Rough on rats" and 

 died at the age of 19 years. In these cases, apparently, concomitantly 

 with the rising hyperkinetic condition, there is a complete loss of 

 inhibitions and the instinct of self-preservation is thereby rendered 

 impotent. The strong emotion induces vigorous action and as the 

 machine is now running quite wild, it frequently destroys itself. 



Here belong the impulsive suicides that seem to have no sort of 

 motive. 



Thus (family 4) the father's father's father at 70 withdrew his money 

 from the bank, tied it in a bag, threw it into the pond, and jumped in 

 after it, determined to drown himself. He was rescued. Nine years 

 later he was seen to leave his plow and run toward the barn, where his 

 body was later found hanging from a rafter. In family 1 1 , the patient 

 complains of a certain round of thoughts going through his mind over 

 and over again. The last evening he spent with his fiancee he seemed 



