Essays In Pastoral Medicine Part 23

As a rule neurasthenic individuals become, as is well known, worse as far as the mental condition is concerned when they are asked to a.s.sume new responsibilities. This physical side of the choice of Superiors, and of those to be elected by members of the community, should always receive due attention, though sometimes it is entirely lost sight of.

Not a few communities, however, have suffered in their usefulness and in the fulfilment of the design of their inst.i.tute by the selection of Superiors whose neurotic conditions sometimes seemed to proclaim a high degree of piety, which was, however, rather emotional than practical. The physician's view of some of these cases would add materially to the knowledge of the character of such individuals.

It should in general be very clear that the development of any serious nervous disease, which is not likely to be cured by ordinary remedies or which requires freedom from responsibility as the first requisite for improvement, should be the signal for consideration as to a change of Superiors. Physicians see much more of the evil that may be worked in this way, and realise the true significance of what is often a sad state of affairs, much better than those who have not the secret of the cause of the unfortunate condition. It is almost needless to say that the question of obedience to some one whose responsibility is not complete, but is influenced by neurotic disturbance, becomes an extremely difficult problem for the subject, and one in which there is apt to be the feeling that it was not the original intention of his obligation of obedience to bind him under such circ.u.mstances.

With regard to women especially, it must be remembered that there is for them a period between the ages of forty {250} and fifty, during which for several years they are extremely unsuited for the responsibilities and exacting duties of a Superior. These years prove even to mothers of families, surrounded only by their own children and the ordinary circ.u.mstances of home life, a time of worry and irritation that plays sad havoc even with the best of dispositions.

Mothers constantly complain to their physicians of an irritability of temper which they can scarcely account for, and which makes them do and say things which they are extremely sorry for afterwards. It is easy to understand, then, that a Superior with still more insistent duties when brought in contact with a number of persons, some of whom are almost sure not to be entirely sympathetic, is likely to suffer from irritation that is not a sign of absence of a fitting religious disposition, but only a physical manifestation of the physical strain through which she has to pa.s.s at this time of life. The years of the menopause, to be very plain, should not be allowed to make a Superior's life miserable and to add to the difficulties that a religious community always has to face in its relations to its Superior and to one another. Charcot, the distinguished French neurologist, used to say that women should never be asked to a.s.sume special responsibilities during the days of their monthly period, for their judgments are often warped by their physical condition. It is doubtful whether, in the majority of normal women, this is quite true, though the expression deserves to be remembered. There is no doubt, however, that the years of the change of life do bring on very serious modifications of the character of the individual, and occasionally these changes are lasting.

JAMES J. WALSH.

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XXII

EPILEPSY AND RESPONSIBILITY

From the very earliest times epilepsy has been looked upon as a mysterious and in many ways an inexplicable disease. The Romans spoke of it as the _malum comitiale_, the comitial disease, because if an attack of it occurred during the meeting of the Roman people known as the _comitia_, in which munic.i.p.al officers were elected and other city business transacted, an adjournment was at once moved, and no further proceedings were considered valid. During more modern times, especially during the middle ages, and almost down to our own time, those affected by the disease frequently came to be looked upon as the subjects of possession by the devil. Hysterical manifestations were even more frequently considered signs of possession (diabolical manifestations) but even in our time it is not always easy to make the distinction between certain forms of hysteria and epilepsy. Many of these sufferers were considered as not responsible for their actions.

In this respect, at least, the advance of modern medical science has only served to confirm the popular impression of less sophisticated times, and it has come to be recognised that quite a large number of the sufferers from epilepsy must be deemed lacking in responsibility.

There are few nervous diseases that have been more studied than epilepsy, and yet, because the ailment involves so intimately the relations of the nervous system and the bodily function, there are few diseases of which less definite opinions can be given. This is especially true as regards prognosis and the question of mental deterioration in any given case. As a matter of fact the extension of our knowledge of epilepsy, far from making the question of the responsibility of the {252} epileptic under trying circ.u.mstances more easy of solution, has rather served to show how difficult this problem must ever remain.

There are many forms of the disease,--the frank epileptic convulsion in which patients fall down, are seized with certain convulsive movements, become pale and lose consciousness for a time and then come to with an intense feeling of weariness which usually prompts them to sleep for some hours--too familiar to need further description. There are forms of epilepsy, however, quite different from these. In some cases, the attacks occur only at night, and unless the patient happens to be watched for some reason, there may be no trace of their occurrence, except perhaps a sore tongue where it has been bitten, or an intense feeling of weariness and depression in the morning. In still other cases, the physical signs are lacking almost entirely.

There may be only a momentary loss of consciousness. A distinguished professor of medicine in this country used to have a momentary attack of confusion, during which he lost the thread of his discourse, and always within a minute, with a somewhat flushed face, he was able to go on, though he had to begin with another idea. The so-called psychic epilepsy, in which the symptoms are entirely mental and consist of some marked change of disposition for a time, are now universally conceded as const.i.tuting well-marked phases of the disease. Curiously enough it is with regard to these obscure cases, uncomplicated by serious physical manifestations, that there is most mystery; and they seem to affect the mentality and to disturb volition and responsibility more than the supposedly severer forms which cause convulsive attacks and are so easy of recognition.

Certain forms of masked or psychic epilepsy const.i.tute the most puzzling problem that the expert in nervous and mental disease has to deal with where criminal acts are performed, apparently without sufficient motive, and yet where the limits of responsibility must if possible be determined. It is easy to dismiss these cases and to consider that because a certain amount of intelligence has been displayed in the performance of the act, and because the patient ordinarily understands perfectly the distinction between good and evil. {253} that therefore the will must have been entirely free in the accomplishment of the criminal action and the intellect must have understood what it was doing. As yet the general public refuses to take the standpoint of the expert in mental diseases in many of these cases; and only when clergymen also shall come to a realisation of the pathological elements undermining free will in these cases, that justice will be properly tempered, not by unworthy or misplaced charity, but by the mercy which, knowing all, has learned duly to appreciate what is and what is not criminal.

Epilepsy, in certain of its obscurer forms, is responsible for many conditions in which there is a sudden access of insane excitement of a violent, often very impulsive, character, though sometimes of very short duration. During this state the patient is practically irresponsible, and yet he may have sufficient control over his actions to enable him to work serious harm. Such a stage of excitement may last not more than an hour or two; usually all trace of it pa.s.ses off in a day or two; before and after it the patient may be in perfectly sound sense and in apparently good health. One of our best authorities here in America, Berkley, in his treatise on _Mental Diseases_, gives the following striking opinion on this subject.

"The subject of masked epilepsy and the consequent mania is replete with interest to the physician and the jurist, since such patients are p.r.o.ne to impulsive acts of violence and automatic states in which the most complicated, but entirely unconscious, actions and crimes may be carried out without premeditation on the part of the sufferer, being also out of all accord with his character during his intervals of mental health. Besides the irritability, impulsiveness is an equally characteristic feature. No form of insanity more frequently gives rise to a.s.saults and murder than epilepsy, and in no form of alienation is the physician so frequently called to the witness stand to determine the responsibility of the criminal."

One of the most prominent features of all epilepsy is the well known tendency to irritability that characterises sufferers from the disease. This of itself is an index of the fact that {254} their responsibility is somewhat lessened, since they are unable to withstand even the petty annoyances of life without exaggerated reaction. Friends of epileptics know very well that it is a preliminary symptom of the coming on of an attack of epilepsy for the patients to become even more irritable than usual. Just after the comatose condition which follows an attack of epilepsy patients are also p.r.o.ne to be very irritable. An attack of epilepsy is really an explosion of nerve force, for no rational purpose, along motor nerves.

This same tendency to an unwarranted explosion of energy is liable to occur along other nerve tracts that rule the patient's disposition.

The main symptom of importance in the case, and the one on which depends the recognition of the existence of the epileptic condition, is the actual occurrence of typical epileptic seizures. These do not always occur. Sometimes the periodic attacks take the form of what are called epileptic equivalents, that is, certain anomalous states of consciousness or disposition, which can be accounted for only on the supposition that there is some more or less latent explosion of nerve force in progress. At times even so simple a condition as migraine so nearly simulates epilepsy of the psychical type, because of its complications and sequelae and the regularity with which it occurs, that it has been spoken of as an epileptic equivalent. There is no doubt that, in successive generations, epilepsy and migraine may have a relation to one another that is something more than merely a coincidence.

A very interesting feature of epilepsy for confessors and spiritual directors is the tendency to religious emotionalism which so often accompanies what is called idiopathic epilepsy. This means epilepsy that develops without a direct cause, and which is evidently dependent on some essential defect of the nervous system of the individual. In asylums epileptics that have become irrational are known for their religious manifestations, and very often for perversion of their religious tendencies. As has been well said, an epileptic may carry his Bible under his arm, read pa.s.sage after pa.s.sage from the Scriptures, sing psalms continuously, and yet be so {255} ungovernable as to be a nuisance, and so irritable towards his fellow patients and attendants as to be a constant source of worriment. He may read just those pa.s.sages which have reference to love and charity for one's neighbour and dwell on them until they become a bore by repet.i.tion, and yet in a moment of irritation implore to be allowed to get hold of some deadly weapon in order to kill the usually inoffensive person who has done him some imaginary injury.

This last is a marked feature of the disease, for epileptics are p.r.o.ne to foster fancied grudges, and to consider without due reason that they have been ill treated. This is especially true with regard to their relatives or to those in attendance on them, and must be always borne in mind when the subjects of epilepsy bring tales of woe and persecution, which they pour out to anyone who will listen to them, and especially to anyone whom they think will set them right. These fancied wrongs are as real to the patients themselves as if they had suffered from actual maltreatment. The idea of revenge may easily obtrude itself. It can be kept under control, as a rule, during ordinary health, between attacks, but just preceding or after an attack it may very well become of the imperative character that sets an uncontrollable impulse at work.

On the other hand, no cla.s.s of patients is apt to exhibit the low cunning of the insane in so marked a degree as the epileptic. Not only this, but even during ordinary health between attacks they may, owing to their disposition, plan cunningly to simulate some of the symptoms of an attack and then accomplish a really malicious purpose with deliberation. In a word, these patients present to the alienist the most serious problem in the calculation of responsibility that can possibly be imagined. As an expert has declared, "It is ofttimes impossible to decide whether an a.s.sault has been committed with full consciousness, or in a transient but blind epileptic fury."

There are a series of attacks that occur in which there are some almost typical convulsive movements followed by loss of consciousness that simulate epilepsy very closely, yet are not true epilepsy. These attacks are usually due to some {256} cerebral affection or perhaps to some injury of the brain. Chronic intoxications, that is, the long continued presence in the body in noxious quant.i.ties of some poisonous substance, are especially liable to cause these attacks, which are called from their character epileptiform. Characteristic epileptiform convulsions occur as the result of lead poisoning or from alcohol or syphilis. Lead poisoning, for instance, may very well occur in others than those engaged directly in the manufacture or handling of lead.

Certain persons are extremely susceptible to the influence of lead. In them such small amounts as are contained in a hair-dye, or even in water that is being used by others without any bad effect, may cause particularly the nervous symptoms of lead poisoning.

Chronic alcoholism is also a relative term in this regard. Some persons are able to stand very large amounts of alcohol without serious consequences, even though it is taken for long periods. Others succ.u.mb to its influence very rapidly; some especially susceptible people are liable to suffer from epileptiform convulsions almost whenever they take alcohol to excess. This masked epilepsy may take on an anomalous form. The story is told of a student of a Catholic college in the eastern part of this country, who, during one vacation, was given as a joke by some friends a rather strong dose of liquor in a gla.s.s of ginger ale. He was very thirsty at the time and did not notice the presence of the alcohol until he had swallowed the whole gla.s.s. As he was well aware himself he was extremely susceptible to the influence of alcohol. During the course of half an hour he became almost wildly drunk, and going down the street with an open pocket-knife he murdered the first person whom he met, who happened to be an entire stranger to him. The occurrence took place in New Jersey, and, in spite of every influence that could be brought to bear--the incident took place some thirty years ago--Jersey justice would have its way and the young fellow of less than twenty was hanged.

The epileptiform attacks that occur in the midst of these intoxications are quite as likely to be accompanied by various forms of mental disturbance as are attacks of true {257} epilepsy. Only one feature with regard to them is more favourable, and that is that the ultimate prognosis is not bad. The neutralisation of existing poison in the system, and the prevention of further ingestion of the toxic material, puts an end to the tendency to epileptiform convulsions, as a rule, and also to the mental symptoms a.s.sociated with them.

Epilepsy remains, notwithstanding all the advance in modern nervous pathology, quite as mysterious a disease as it has ever been. It matters not what its cause, or how slight it may be, sooner or later it is almost sure to be followed by mental disturbance and deterioration of intellectual and will power. At times there are periodic attacks of mental perturbation that may become true insanity.

Even the mild form of epilepsy known as Jacksonian epilepsy, and consisting not of general convulsive movements, but of convulsive movements in only one member or one side of the body, are, if allowed to continue, followed by some mental disturbance. It would seem as if the explosion of nerve force in the brain centres,--which, physiologically speaking, an attack of epilepsy evidently is,--causes eventual deterioration of the physical basis of mind and will, so that mental operations can no longer be performed with their wonted expertness or accuracy, nor decisions made as rationally as before.

In general, it is well understood that the more serious the epilepsy the more liability there is of the development of permanent mental disturbance. The earlier in life the epilepsy declares itself, too, the more unfavourable is the prognosis as to the enduring retention of complete mental sanity. In people in whom the epilepsy commences late in life, the process of mental deterioration does not begin to be noticeable so soon as when it occurs in younger years, and besides, it practically never runs a rapid course. Epilepsy, however, developing late in life, unless for some special cause, as injury or the development of syphilitic tumours in the brain, is an extremely rare affection. Idiopathic epilepsy, that is, epilepsy for which no definite cause can be discovered, is usually dependent on hereditary instability of the nervous system and is typically a disease of early years, of childhood {258} and adolescence. According to the best authorities, about one-fourth of the cases of epilepsy make their appearance before the age of 7 years. Over 50 per centum of all cases develop before p.u.b.erty. About one-third of all the cases develop between 14 and 20. And even of the remaining, less than 20 per centum, over 12 per centum develop between 20 and 25, leaving scarcely more than 5 per centum for all the remaining years of life.

Of course, even in severer forms of epilepsy, mental disturbances do not appear at once. It sometimes takes many years for the constantly recurring manifestation of explosive nerve force to produce the deterioration that gives rise to lowered rationality. Distinct mental deterioration is eventually inevitable, though modern experience with epileptic colonies, in which patients are enabled to live a quiet life, most of it in the open air and under conditions of nutrition and restfulness especially favourable for their physical well-being, shows that the development of insanity may be put off almost indefinitely.

There are many advertised cures for epilepsy. None of them is successful, and all of them may do harm. The bromides have a distinct effect in lessening the number and frequency of seizures, but if taken to excess they have a serious depressing effect upon the patient.

There have been more cases of mental disturbance among epileptics, and intellectual degeneration sets in earlier, since the introduction of the bromides, than before. It is the abuse of the drug, however, not its use, that does harm. More important than any drug is the care of the patient's general health. The digestion must be kept without derangement; the bowels made regular; all sources of worry and emotional strain must be removed. Patients should as far as possible live in the country, and farm life has been found especially suitable.

Relatives are often a source of irritation rather than consolation to these patients, and the life in epileptic colonies has been found eminently helpful.

JAMES J. WALSH.

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XXIII

PSYCHIC EPILEPSY AND SECONDARY PERSONALITY

One of the most interesting phases of epilepsy is the type of the disease in which, without any significant motor symptoms, psychical manifestations prevail very markedly. A special manifestation in this affection is the occurrence of a more or less complete a.s.sertion of what is called a secondary personality. Apparently the individual becomes so divided in the use of the mental faculties that there are two states of consciousness. In one of these the patient knows and remembers all the ordinary acts of life, the other carries the record of only such actions as are done in a peculiarly morbid psychic or epileptic condition. It is rather easy to understand that this strange state of affairs may readily give rise to even serious complications as regards the individual's relations to others, and may make the problem of responsibility for apparently criminal acts that have been performed very difficult of solution. Undoubtedly, however, this set of phenomena const.i.tutes a form of mental alienation that must be reckoned with in many more cases than might be thought possible. The difficulties that may have to be encountered in the proper appreciation of the actions of such individuals is best ill.u.s.trated by some cases.

At a recent meeting of the New York State Medical a.s.sociation a case was reported that shows how extremely difficult it may be to judge of responsibility under these pathological circ.u.mstances. The patient, a young man of about twenty-two, was the son of parents themselves of marked nervous heredity, signs of which appeared in other members of his generation. While in attendance at a public academy he had been quite severely maltreated during the {260} course of an initiation into a secret society of the students--the more or less familiar processes known as hazing being employed. As a result of this he had suffered from an attack of unconsciousness that lasted for several hours. No other symptoms, however, or sequelae, appeared for nearly a year. Then, while boarding with his sister, he became morose and difficult to get along with. He quarrelled with his sister several times and generally their relations were rather strained. He came home one evening very late to supper, and because things were not to suit him on the table, he grew violently angry. He went upstairs to his room in this morose state and, procuring a revolver, after a short time came down and shot at his sister.

Fortunately he missed her. He at once left the house but was followed by his brother-in-law, and, after he began to run away, by others whose attention had been attracted by the shot. He left the country road and ran across the fields. He was found at the foot of a rather high stone wall in a state of unconsciousness. From this unconsciousness he did not recover until the next morning. In the meantime he had been brought home and put to bed. The next morning he claimed that he had absolutely no remembrance of anything that happened after he became angry at the table because of his supper. The family made no further difficulty about the matter, and, as nothing serious had resulted, the boy went home to live with his father on a farm and seemed to grow much more equable in temper.

One day, when very tired and out of sorts because things had not been going as he wanted them to, he was asked to clear a potato patch of potato bugs by spreading Paris green over it. Some hours later he was found in the field suffering from severe pains in the stomach and with evident signs of having swallowed some of the poison. A doctor was called, an emetic was given and he purged, and after a time he recovered from the symptoms of poisoning. He claimed that he had no recollection of what he had done, nor did he know how he came to take the poison. After this he begged the family to watch over him carefully and not to let him be alone at times when they recognised that he was somewhat {261} morose in temper. He was not melancholic in the sense that he wanted to commit suicide, but something seemed to come over him in spells, and while in a state of mind of which he had no recollection afterwards, he performed actions that seemed voluntary and yet were not.

He did not have very good health on the farm, and so he was advised to try the effect of life at sea. A position as a.s.sistant steward was obtained for him on a coastwise vessel. In this position he gained rapidly in weight and seemed to have excellent health. All tendencies to moroseness of disposition disappeared. After a time he was promoted to a stewards.h.i.+p and later became the purser of a rather important vessel. He has given excellent satisfaction and feels in every way that he is in a much more balanced condition than ever before.

He still insists that he remembers nothing of how the two almost fatal incidents in his life came about. All his family are convinced that it was not a responsible state of mind that led him to attempt either of the crimes. It seems not improbable that this is one of those fortunately rare cases in which an attack of psychic epilepsy sometimes obliterates for a moment the individuality of a patient. At times these attacks last much longer, and the change to a secondary personality may represent a rather long interval. A number of cases of what are called ambulatory epilepsy have been brought to the attention of the general public of late years because of certain interesting features of the cases that have been exploited in the daily press.

Patients suffering from this form of nervous disease may wander from their homes, and while performing automatically a number of actions, such as buying tickets, travelling on cars and railroad trains, or even arranging the details of their journey for a long distance, may yet be in a state of mind that is not their ordinary consciousness.

Men may leave home under the circ.u.mstances and find themselves after months in a strange town where they have established themselves in some quite different occupation from that to which they were formerly accustomed, or for which their early training fitted them. There seems to be an absolute division between the {262} states of consciousness that rule the individual during the intervals of ordinary and extraordinary personality. There are, of course, many reasons for thinking that at times such a change of personality might be feigned; but many of the cases have been followed with too much care to allow this thought to serve as an explanation for all of them.

A case which serves to bring home very clearly the possibility of such a state of mind giving rise to serious complications is the following: The patient was a young man in attendance at the medical school of a university in a foreign city. He had been very careless in money matters, and had aroused family suspicion that even the money sent him for tuition was being used extravagantly. A friend of the family came to see him unexpectedly in order to a.s.sure himself how the boy was actually getting along. The boy's accounts were in a very disordered condition; he had not bought the books for which he pretended to want money; he had not paid his tuition. He realised that all this would come out as soon as the university authorities were consulted. Very naturally he was in an extremely perturbed state of mind.

While on the way to the university with this friend they pa.s.sed a corner pharmacy, and the young man asked to be allowed to step in for a moment for a remedy for headache. The friend waited on the sidewalk for him, and when, after some minutes, the young man did not come out he went in to inquire for him, and found that after purchasing a headache powder the young man had gone out by a side door. For three days nothing was heard from him. Then a telegram announced that he was in a hospital in a distant city and that he had been picked up on the street unconscious. When he came to in the hospital he had no idea where he was, and, according to his own story, no recollection of how he got to the distant city.

It might be very easy to think, under such circ.u.mstances, that this was all pretence. A number of these cases of ambulatory epilepsy have been under the observation of distinguished neurologists, however, and there seems no good reason to doubt that some of them, at least, were entirely without any fict.i.tious element. In any given case the {263} possibility of the occurrence of an attack of what is really the a.s.sumption of a secondary personality must be judged from the circ.u.mstances, from the previous history of the individual, from the family traits, and from certain stigmata as narrowing of the field of vision and the like, which go to show the existence of a highly neurotic const.i.tution. In this case the family history showed marked neurotic tendencies on both sides, and a brother had displayed a tendency to regularly s.p.a.ced attacks of alcoholism about every six weeks, and finally became absolutely uncontrollable. There seemed good reason to think that the case was a real example of ambulatory epilepsy, and that the lapse of memory claimed by the patient really existed.

In these cases it is usual for the so-called secondary personality to a.s.sert itself at moments of intense excitement, especially if they have been preceded by days of worry and fatigue and nights of disturbed rest. The secondary personality is not a complete personality, but is a manifestation of the original ego with the memory for past events as a _tabula rasa_. It is well known that the memory is one of the intellectual faculties most dependent on physical conditions. It is the lowest in the scale of mental qualities and is shared to a very large degree by the animals. Injuries to the head not infrequently produce lacunae in the memory. These lacunae often have very striking limitations. It is not an unusual thing to find that old people remember events of their very early childhood better than things that have happened within a few years. Still more interesting is the fact that languages learned in youth may continue to be easily used, when those that were learned later in life, though perhaps known better than the previously studied languages, are forgotten.

It has often been noted that people who suffer from apoplexy may have peculiar affections of their memory. This may include such striking peculiarities as the forgetting of the uses of things, though their names are retained, or more commonly, the forgetting of names while the knowledge of uses remains. The one form of memory disturbance is called "Word Amnesia;" the other is called "Apraxia." It is on {264} record that a person suffering from a hemorrhage in the brain has lost completely the use of a language acquired later in life, though the memory of the native language, long since fallen into disuse, was perfectly retained. One apoplectic woman patient who had left Germany before she was ten years of age, and who had lived in America until she was fifty, forgot absolutely the English she knew so well and had to set herself to work to learn it over again, though her German came back to her very naturally. These are wonderful peculiarities of memory-pathology that show how much this faculty is dependent on the physical basis of mind and upon the cellular const.i.tuents of the brain.

It is not surprising, then, to find that lapses of memory may occur and that, as a consequence, so many of the facts that ordinarily enable us to identify ourselves as particular persons may be in abeyance. That apparently a secondary personality a.s.serts itself,--though not in the sense that there is ever another ego present, another mind or another will,--practically all experts in psychology and nervous diseases are now ready to concede. There are, however, involved in this question a number of important problems of responsibility that have not as yet been entirely worked out, and with regard to which prudent persons are withholding their judgment. Each case must be studied entirely on its own merits, with a leaning in favour of the criminal or patient, in case there are evidences in past life of serious disturbances of mentality, though only of very temporary nature, or if there is a strong nervous or mental heredity.

The notion of the possibility of a secondary personality a.s.serting itself is a much older idea than it is usually thought to be. When Stevenson wrote _Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde_, the immediate widespread popularity of the book was not due to recent psychological studies on dual personality and popular interest in a rare but striking mental phenomenon, but rather to the traditional feeling, long existent, of the possibility of two personalities in almost any individual. The other law in his members, of which St. Paul speaks, is an expression of this feeling, and its recognition was not original with him since it is after all a phenomenon at least as old {265} as the existence of conscience. It is one of the basic ideas in religious feeling. Nearly everyone has something of the consciousness that there is in him possibilities for evil that somehow he escapes, and yet the escape is not entirely due to his own will power. There is here the mystery of temptation, of free will and of grace as the drama of conscience works itself out in every human being. At times the evil inclination seems to get beyond the power of the will and a period of irresponsibility sets in. Needless to say, the adjudication of how much may be due to the habitual neglect of repression of lower instincts is extremely difficult, and this const.i.tutes the problem which the alienist must try to solve. In the meantime there is need in many mysterious cases where secondary personality may play a role, of the exercise of a larger Christian charity than that hitherto practised. Pretenders may succeed in deceiving only too often, but in the past not a few innocent individuals have been held to a responsibility for actions for which they were not quite accountable.