tion as a
suckling babe. In the first place, the patient must be fed. It is
important for mental recovery that the individual in stupor should be
stimulated to effort as much as possible. Consequently there is an
economy of time in the long run in taking pains to get the patient to
feed himself in so far as that is possible. He should be led to the
table and assisted in handling his own spoon and cup. If this is not
practicable, he should then be spoon-fed, and if this in turn is found
to be out of the question, tube-feeding should be resorted to. But this
last should never be looked on as a permanent necessity, but only as a
method of maintaining the patient's health until such time as he may be
capable of independent taking of nourishment. In exactly the same way it
is of prime importance to get the patient to attend to the natural
habits of excretion. He should be led to the toilet or to a chair
commode, and efforts to this end should be persistent, just as are those
of a good child's nurse who has the ambition of making her charge
develop normal habits. Naturally those who retain urine and feces should
be watched to see that this retention does not last long enough to
menace health. The physical aspects of treatment are exhausted with
consideration for cleanliness. On account of the stupor patients'
inactivity and frequent tendency to wetting and soiling, this is a
particularly important consideration. It goes without saying that the
perineal region should be kept scrupulously clean. If any infections are
to be avoided, eyes, nose and mouth should also be cleansed frequently.
A patient who is so indifferent as to keep the eyelids open for such a
long time that the sclera dry and ulcerate is also apt to let flies
settle and produce serious ophthalmic disease.

Less obvious and more important are the measures undertaken for the
mental hygiene of the case. On account of the tendency present in so
many patients for sudden action while in the midst of an apparently deep
and permanent inactivity, it is necessary that these cases be not
isolated but remain under constant observation. This is particularly
true of those who have demonstrated impulsive suicidal explosions.

Not only on the basis of the psychological theory of the stupor process,
but from the observed phenomena of recovery, we gather that mental
stimulation is of first importance if an amelioration of the condition
is to be attempted. If the stupor reaction b