possessed the poor fellow—that not only took his life, but destroyed his character, lost him the love and esteem of his friends, and doomed him for half a dozen years to do things he would most have hated and despised when he was himself. Dunlap, the assistant surgeon at Dayton, told me that he found in this man's trunk letters from several—half a dozen, I think, at least—women in various places, from which it appeared that he was engaged to be married to each one of them. The letters were neatly tied up in packages, each one's separately, in several instances with photographs supposed to be of the writers, and the date of reception and reply was noted on many of the letters in a business-like way.” As Westphal well says[15] of such persons, “They often think correctly and logically, and show reflection and deliberation to a certain degree; but there is a certain something lacking, and there are some general conceptions, general processes of thought and judgment, of which they are incapable. Their mentality stops short on a certain plane, especially in matters of judgment where every even uneducated person easily succeeds. They sometimes act as if they had good judgment and common sense, of which they are really destitute, particularly in regard to the proprieties of life and their proper social relations and duties. Certain of the finer feelings are absolutely impossible of development in them. Through their various nets, perverted by their mental defect, the patients often seem perverse (bösartig), passionate (leidenschaftlich), although of true sustained passion they are incapable. What seems passion is a sudden idea or fitful impulse to which they yield at once. Moral insanity is a defect in the affective {146} sphere, but also an intellectual defect of a peculiar kind, which is often concealed under the mask of a perverted moral sense, and which requires time and practice on the part of the physician for its detection.” [Footnote 15: _Berl. klin. Wochenchrift_, 1878, No. 15.] Moral insanity is quite certain to pursue a downward course, although something can be done by training, general hygiene, simple diet, mental discipline, avoiding overwork, a judicious choice of the few occupations of which the moral insane are capable, and a constant steadying hand to help them try to keep their balance.