ANIMAL AUTOMATISM. 231 



ran his bayonet through the Prussian soldier who 

 wounded him, but almost immediately his right arm 

 became paralysed; after walking about two hundred 

 yards, his right leg became similarly affected, and he 

 lost his senses. When he recovered them, three weeks 

 afterwards, in hospital at Mayence, the right half of 

 the body was completely paralysed, and remained in 

 this condition for a year. At present, the only trace 

 of the paralysis which remains is a slight weakness of 

 the right half of the body. Three or four months 

 after the wound was inflicted, periodical disturbances 

 of the functions of the brain made their appearance, 

 and have continued ever since. The disturbances last 

 from fifteen to thirty hours ; the intervals at which they 

 occur being from fifteen to thirty days. 



For four years, therefore, the life of this man has 

 been divided into alternating phases short abnormal 

 states intervening between long normal states. 



In the periods of normal life, the ex-sergeant's health 

 is perfect ; he is intelligent and kindly, and performs, 

 satisfactorily, the duties of a hospital attendant. The 

 commencement of the abnormal state is ushered in by 

 uneasiness and a sense of weight about the forehead, 

 which the patient compares to the constriction of a circle 

 of iron ; and, after its termination, he complains, for 

 some hours, of dulness and heaviness of the head. But 

 the transition from the normal to the abnormal state 

 takes place in a few minutes, without convulsions or 

 cries, and without anything to indicate the change to a 



