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 

 diarrhoea, eats three times a day. Eats as much as any 

 healthy, active woman of her age. Objects to nauseous 



