s, resistive,
answering few questions and in a low tone. She said things
were "changed," also that she was married to S.
_Under Observation:_ 1. For about ten days the patient's
condition may be described as follows: The most striking
feature was a certain restlessness with insistence on going
out, with complaints that this and that had been done to
her and with senseless struggling when interfered with. But
all the motions were slow, the whole restlessness aimless
and impulsive. Although the facial expression was somewhat
perplexed, it changed remarkably little, and whenever asked
whether she felt worried or anxious she denied it, and,
indeed, there was only a suggestion of perplexity in her
face.
The ideas which she expressed during this time referred to
a few topics only, namely, marriage, wealth, and State
prison. The remarkable fact was that all the ideas about
marriage and wealth were spoken of, often immediately,
again after some interval, now in the positive and again in
the negative sense. Thus she said she was "Mrs. S.," again
"You kept me from marrying Mattie S.," or "I am not
supposed to be here--I am a married person," but also "You
kept me from getting married." Or, "Take off that black
dress, I am a bride," again "You have taken my bridal crown
off my head," "The steamboats (seen from the window) are
mine--I own the ships, the oceans, the land and
everything," or again, she said she owned a kingdom, was
Sh.'s wife, a wealthy woman, had millions. Sometimes she
connected the millions with Sh. "Sh. has millions." On the
other hand, she said: "I owned all this before I came. I
have nothing now," or "You have taken the regal crown from
me," "You have made a pauper of me," "They did it again,
they took my millions away," or "Let me out, they are
taking my millions."
Other ideas throughout this period were that this was a
State prison, that "bums" were around. On one occasion she
said "You can't put down all these things and make me out a
lunatic." At another time she pulled a patient's hair and
then said without fun: "I fixed the leading lady of the
dump--she knows a lot, but she does not know enough to
keep her soup cool." When questioned about this woman (who
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