It is evident that the irrationality of frequent appeals to expensive and bothersome litigation should arouse suspicion. Such patients need to be cared for quite as effectually as those who have tendencies to gamble away their substance or to waste it in the midst of inebriety. Unfortunately it is extremely difficult to frame laws so as to meet such conditions. Severer forms of the affliction are readily recognised and the sufferer is properly restrained. I remember once seeing a patient in Professor Flechsig's clinic in Leipzig, who had been sent to the asylum because of his tendency to go to law on the smallest possible pretext. This patient's incarceration in the asylum was due to a very striking manifestation of his _paranoia querulans_. He answered an advertisement for a clerk, published by one of the large commercial houses. He found himself one of a row of applicants for the position, and as the member of the firm whose duty it was to engage the clerk was at the moment busy, he had to wait several hours before his application was heard and refused. He tried to secure a warrant for the firm in order to have them indemnify him for the time he had spent while waiting for his application to be heard, at the rate of wages they would have been bound to pay him had he obtained the vacant clerkship; only as they had spoiled a day he claimed a full day's wages. This patient had been in the asylum several times before because of his tendency to go to law. He always gained in weight while in the asylum, became much more tractable and less querulous as his physical condition improved, and usually after some months could be allowed to leave the institution. He was, however, one of the inept. With the help of asylum influence he usually obtained some occupation more or less suitable, but was not able to retain it for long. When out of a situation he worried about himself, usually did not take proper food, and then soon his litigious peculiarities began to manifest themselves once more in such form that if he could get the money to retain an attorney, or if he could persuade one to take his case on a contingent fee, and he was very ingenious at this, he soon became a veritable nuisance to {295} those around him. When in poor health he was never contented unless he had at least one lawsuit on his hands, and only really happy when he had several.