34 CASE HISTORIES 



say. No particular subjects, just matters of friendship and love." 

 ( Blushes emotion. ) 



One night he took to bed a newspaper photograph of a noted 

 prima donna who was suing for divorce. The following morning 

 he told me she had spent the night with him in sexual intercourse, 

 that she was going to settle a hundred thousand dollars on him, 

 and he would marry her as the Earl of Wellington. On another 

 occasion the attendant, out of curiosity to see his reaction, offered 

 to bring a real woman to him. He became panic stricken at once 

 and angrily forbade the attendant to do so. 



At night he was very disturbed and often had regular battles 

 with imaginary antagonists. I sometimes came into the ward 

 quietly and listened to him without his knowing it. He seemed 

 usually to be fighting off another person or resisting masturba- 

 tion. At intervals he exclaimed, " No, don't do that. Put your 

 hand down. A nice young man like you," and his voice broke as 

 if weeping. A " glahba-glah " would be interjected from time 

 to time. After an hour's conflict he gave in and masturbated 

 angrily, then became quiet. Patients in neighboring beds told 

 me that during these struggles he talked of coitus, bestiality, 

 cunnilingus and analingus. He would shout, " Take that man out 

 of here. I don't want you. Come back in here." Then he'd leap 

 out of bed and fight the air with his fists. The struggles ended 

 in angry masturbation. Once he pounded his jaw as if angry at 

 himself. 



He complained somewhat of trees, saying that trees and cars 

 did it, made the offense (turning him over), and that plants and 

 trees annoyed him by talking to him, and he could feel their talk 

 tap him on the abdomen like a person's finger (homosexual 

 assault?). 



" That gets me," he exclaimed indignantly, " I get the boys 

 all the time and I want the girls sometimes." 



General observations: He was a pleasant, friendly fellow 

 quite willing to talk unless too badly annoyed by his hallucina- 

 tions, but it was often hard to understand him, for he had given 

 meanings of his own to familiar words and thus invented almost 

 another language. For instance he would rub a forefinger in the 

 palm of the other hand and talk about " material " and " ingredi- 



