Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 5.djvu/400

 386 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

Certainly this case had nothing to do with somnambulism. The appearance of the subject was far from being normal. He was in a kind of stupor. But, on the other hand, he did not present the appearance of a drunken man, and he had preserved a certain motor activity.

We give below a number of examples of alcoholic somnam- bulism.

A certain man was accused of cheating, committed under the following circumstances : Several times, and in different localities, he entered an inn or cafe, ate and drank, and then went away without paying his bill, or he refused to acknowledge his account when it was presented to him. His father was a drunk- ard. At the age of fifteen years the son began to drink and indulge in many excesses. From the beginning, after these errors, the patient had, he himself said, troubled thoughts. He was conscious of this, but, not being incoherent in writing or speaking, no one perceived it.

Later he showed such marked mental trouble that they thought of sending him to an asylum. It was utterly impos- sible for him to recall what he had done for fifteen days. He remembered only that at this period of his existence he dreamed of riches, of treasures which he would discover. After still greater excesses, he told of them himself; he was tormented, disturbed, preoccupied. He imagined people fol- lowed him.

At last, one lovely day — he could not recall whether it was evening or morning — he set out for a city where he was to spend the night ; then, always possessed by the thought of people fol- lowing him, he took at the dock-yard a ticket for the first station on the road.

He did not stay there, but went to the country of his father, where he gave himself up to excess in drink. He could not tell how long he remained there. He stayed with a paternal aunt, who drank also. It was, so to speak, a hereditary habit in his father's family. He could not recall how he left his aunt ; and from that moment memory completely failed. He could not recall what had happened, and no matter how he was pushed or