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Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. [Sess. 
The first is probably attributable to the extreme difficulty which such 
patients experience in “ getting under weigh ” in a mental task ; it is an 
expression of their exaggerated psychomotor inertia ; and this delayed 
“ Anregung ” seems to me of definite diagnostic significance. As regards 
the second, the imminence of the end of the task which acts as an incentive 
to greater effort in normal people is either not realised owing to defective 
judgment of the time the test has lasted, or it is insufficient to elicit any 
special effort. 
With these last two facts, and with emphasising the wonderful 
reflection of the mental state obtained on the work curve of the excited 
cases, I must for the moment be content. Their diagnostic value can be 
precisely determined only when we are in possession of similar experi- 
mental data from other mental diseases, for example dementia praecox. 
More results are also necessary before we can deduce the true significance 
of the high standard of the improvability observed in the mentally affected. 
But it seems probable that some at least of the abnormal degree of 
improvement found in these morbid mental states is due to the therapeutic 
action of the test, and that Maloney’s assertion (6) that the Reckoning Test 
has in Psychiatry a therapeutic value is probably well founded. 
Brief History of the Cases Examined. 
Case I. — Male, aged 30, single. Had an attack of mania at the age 
of 20 ; remained well until he was 26. Since then has had mild attacks of 
excitement and depression with lucid intervals. 
Case II. — Female, aged 55, single. Has been ill since the age of 30, 
with attacks of excitement and depression occurring about every twelve 
months, and alternating with lucid intervals varying from a few weeks to 
several months. 
Case III. — Female, aged 48, single. During the past four years has 
had several severe attacks of depression and several short attacks of excite- 
ment, with a short lucid interval between the two which usually lasted for 
about three weeks. 
Case IV. — Male, aged 60, single. First broke down mentally twenty 
years ago, since then has had many attacks of excitement and depression. 
Has been treated in various institutions, and has on several occasions been 
well enough to live at home. 
Case V. — Female, aged 49, single. Had a severe attack of excitement 
at the age of 39. Recovered and broke down again five years later. Since 
then has been alternately excited and depressed. 
Case VI. — Male, aged 47, single. Has had many attacks of excitement 
