THE TYPES OF PERSONALITY 219 



ascertainable cause at all, or because of some slight excitement 

 like that attending some slight operation, a fall, or a mild illness. 

 During the run-about epoch they are unable to cope with the 

 necessities of an active child's existence in playing with other 

 children. Puberty and adolescence are specially perilous to them 

 for they may endeavour to compensate for an inner feeling of 

 physical inferiority by going in strenuously for athletics and 

 sports, and so risking a sudden hemorrhage in the brain, produc- 

 ible by the tearing of a blood vessel, as if constructed of defec- 

 tive rubber. Reports published in the newspapers from time to 

 itime of children or young men instantly killed by a tap on the 

 I jaw in a boxing contest, or some other trivial injuries are doubt- 

 I less samples of such reactions in thymo-centric people. 



As an illustration of the conduct aberrations of the thymo- 

 centric personality during adult life, the following extracts from 

 a newspaper report of a suicide are worth quoting. 



"An autopsy made yesterday by Dr. Benjamin Schwartz, first 

 assistant to Dr. Charles Norris, Chief Medical Examiner, re- 

 moved any mystery that surrounded the death on Saturday 

 night by pistol bullets of Dr. Jose A. Arenas and the wounding 

 of 'Miss Ruth Jackson' and Ignatio Marti. 



"Dr. Schwartz said that his post-mortem examination had con- 

 vinced him beyond doubt that the dead physician-dentist had 

 killed himself after he had tried to take the life of the young 

 woman with whom he had lived and of the youth who was his 

 successful rival. 



" 'Besides that/ Dr. Schwartz said, 'my report to the police will 

 include a statement from the young woman to me that she always 

 had understood that Dr. Arenas had killed some one in Havana, 

 Cuba, before he came to New York. 



" 'The autopsy left no doubt that Dr. Arenas was a case of 

 status lymphaticus (thymus-centered personality). I made a 

 most complete report because of the scientific value of the au- 

 topsy. 



" 'This confirmed my first deductions after seeing the body on 

 Saturday night in the doctor's furnished room with alcove bed- 

 room adjoining. You will remember that as soon as I had seen 

 him I revealed that he was wearing corsets. 



" 'These cases of status lymphaticus are intensely interesting. 

 In them the blood vessels are very small, and the lymphatic 

 element is greatly in excess. They die suddenly, from ruptures 



