INHERITANCE OF TEMPERAMENT. Ill 



normal and happy ; however, he did not return to his home, but hung 

 himself in the wood, some distance from his mother's house. A sister 

 of this man gives us a good idea of these impulsions to suicide, which she, 

 too, has often experienced. After her husband's death she struggled 

 constantly with suicidal thoughts. She is not subject to depressions. 



A man in Kings Park Hospital (9472), while working as usual, 

 suddenly grasped a pot of white paint and drank several ounces of it. 

 He said voices told him to kill himself. 



Needham (1872) has recorded the following case: In September 

 1858 a lady who was admitted into the York Lunatic Hospital at her 

 own request, had the following history: Born in Italy, she early dis- 

 played excellent abilities and a lively and volatile disposition. Her 

 education was carefully attended to, and she made rapid progress in 

 her studies. At the age of 28 she was attacked by what was called 

 brain fever, which left her, after an illness of some duration, with 

 considerable mental irritability. She still, however, persevered with 

 her duties, which were scholastic, and acted as governess in several 

 families of distinction. This continued until she was about 43 years 

 of age, when, her health having become somewhat impaired, she was 

 suddenly seized with the impulse, at sight of a razor or knife, to commit 

 suicide or murder. She struggled against this feeling strenuously, and 

 in the course of a few weeks it disappeared completely, and did not recur 

 for more than 5 years. When it did recur she came voluntarily to the 

 asylum and begged to be admitted. She was laboring under great 

 mental distress lest her admission should be refused, and she expressed 

 her decided conviction that she had reached the end of her self-control, 

 and must give way to the impulse if she were not taken care of at once. 

 She was apparently perfectly free from delusion, and conversed ration- 

 ally and cleverly upon general subjects, manifesting, indeed, remark- 

 able shrewdness and knowledge of the world. She was received into 

 the asylum, and within a few weeks the impulse disappeared. A few 

 weeks later an impulse to strangle herself appeared, but this, too, dis- 

 appeared, and after a residence in the asylum of over 4 months she was 

 discharged quite well. About 4 years later she once more presented 

 herself at the asylum for admission, and was then found to be exactly 

 as she had been when previously admitted. On this occasion she 

 stayed in the asylum for 7 or 8 months, but recovered completely, and 

 was discharged a second time. ' ' The peculiar feature of this case, ' ' says 

 Needham, " was that, from first to last, under careful daily observation, 

 there was never the smallest trace of delusion or any other evidence of 

 mental derangement than that which was afforded by the very decided 

 suicidal impulse. The patient, on the contrary, was sensible, clever, 

 and well-conducted." 



Strahan (1893, p. 124) recorded a case very similar to the foregoing 

 under his care for a time. In this case the patient, a married woman, 



