HIBERNATION AND ALLIED STATES IN ANIMALS 95 
health was a very gradual process. She was lachrymose 
and childish for some time, and could not use her limbs 
properly for months—in fact, had to learn to walk again. 
During the period of wakefulness that now ensued— 
seven years or more—the patient, to a certain extent, 
interested herself in the affairs of every-day life. She 
went about the house, etc., but was very quiet and 
did not seem able to concentrate her mind on any- 
thing. Her memory was markedly deficient, and she 
seemed astonished to find people and places changed, 
and could not realise the fact that she had been asleep 
for such a long time. 
When waking up from her long sleep, one of the first 
requests made was for beer, and strange to say, the 
same want was expressed many years after when 
arousing from a subsequent attack. 
About thirteen years ago the patient gradually passed 
into the condition in which we saw her. At first she 
spoke occasionally, but in a childish manner, and often 
made a request for meat and potatoes, invariably using 
the following words: “Meat and potatoes, a plate all 
full up to the top!” 
Before giving the details of the case as we saw it, it 
will be well to repeat, in a general way, the statements 
made by the nurses who had the care of the patient 
before she came to the asylum: She seems to exercise 
a certain amount of discrimination regarding her food, 
and will eat enormously or not at all, and when her 
appetite is not lost, does not seem to know when she 
has had enough. Her diet is made up of minced meat, 
potatoes, soft toast, milk, etc., and she is particularly 
fond of meat and potatoes—in fact, will not touch 
anything until meat and potatoes are provided. She 
does not like sweet things. When not suffering from 
diarrhcea, eats three times a day. Lats as much as any 
healthy, active woman of her age. Objects to nauseous 
