Reich,[3] in 1871, was the first one to call attention to the mental disorders of prisoners awaiting trial. He could observe the development of mental symptoms even during the first hours of confinement, and the relation between the psychosis and the emotional shock of the situation at hand could not be doubted. He describes this acute mental disturbance as follows:--"Already in the first hours or days after imprisonment, or soon after a severe emotional shock, a sort of psychic tension sets in. The prisoner becomes silent, chary of words, lost in brooding. He observes little that goes on about him and remains motionless in one spot. His face takes on an astonished expression, the gaze is vacant and indefinite. If he makes any movements at all they are hesitating, uncertain, as those of a drunken man. Vertigo and aura-like sensations appear; severe anxiety overpowers the patient, which with the entire force of a powerful affect crowds out all other concepts and sensations and dominates the entire personality. Consciousness becomes more and more clouded, soon illusions, hallucinations, and delusions appear, and the prisoner becomes especially taken up with ideas of unknown evil powers, of demons and spirits, and of being persecuted and possessed by the devil. Simultaneously they complain about all sorts of bodily sensations. In isolated cases one may observe convulsive twitchings of the voluntary and involuntary musculature. Finally severe motor excitements set in. The patient becomes noisy, screams, runs aimlessly about, destroys and ruins everything that comes his way. With this the disease has reached its height. At this stage consciousness is entirely in abeyance and the disorder is followed by complete amnesia." Reich supposes that this acute prison psychosis may be included in that large group of abnormal psychic processes, developing from affect and affect-like situations. Reich's important work remained the only one on the subject until 1888, when Moeli again called attention to it. Moeli[4] spoke of patients in whom an apparent total blocking of all thought processes took place. They would exhibit complete ignorance of the most commonplace facts, would forget such well-known things as their own name, place of birth, or age; were unable to recognize the denominations of coins, etc. He noted, however, that although the answers these patients gave were false, they had a certain relation to the question. For instance, coins of a lower denomination would be mistaken for higher ones, postage stamps were called paper, etc. They also showed a marked tendency to elaborate all sorts of false reminiscences about their past life. Along with this failure of the simplest thought and memory activity, these individuals were otherwise well-ordered and behaved.