I.--B. A., aged 18, carpenter; weight, kilog. 69.3; height, m. 1.77.
Complexion pale. In various parts of body scars from wounds by knife,
dagger, stones, and glass, received in various quarrels. Head also covered
by scars. Hair on head very abundant; entirely without beard. Prominent
superciliary arches. Enormous frontal sinuses, lower jaw voluminous;
lemurian appendix present; forehead low and narrow; head normal.
Esthesiometer: left, 1½ right, 1¼; tongue, 1½. Dynamometer: left, 42;
right, 40½. Tendon reflexes normal. General sensibility: right, 52; left,
50. Sensibility to pain: right, 28; left, 30. Slow to distinguish colours.
Drunkard; began at age of 12, led on by his mother. Has thieved
frequently, but only found out once at the end of two years, and
condemned. Is irreligious.
When he is drunk feels melancholy. Has epileptic convulsions, in which he
falls down, and is frequently wounded. He has had similar fits for six
years; they are followed by complete amnesia. The first came on in an
educational institute, after being compelled to take a cold bath in
January.
Three or four hours before the fit he is so stupid that he cannot reckon
two coppers that he holds in his hand; and that he cannot recognise the
people around him, though he may have known them for some time.
After the fit he does not know where he is, and for two or three days
cannot drink water or bathe, on account, he says, of the cold bath that
brought on his disorder.
Is not easily affected; has no aspirations; does not concern himself with
politics.
Cannot say anything of his parents, except that his mother was a drunkard.
(V. Rossi.)
II.--D., age 18, of Turin, smith. A woman’s head tattooed on his right
arm, and the beginning of a name (record of love); in epigastric region a
transfixed heart (to recall a revenge to be accomplished). A scar in left
frontal region; cannot, or will not, say how he got it, but has ever since
suffered from giddiness.
Complexion very pale; vasomotor reaction more marked on the left; pupils
react slowly; facial asymmetry; ears prominent. Hair sparse, dry, and very
dark. Fingers very long and slender. Has tremors; suffers from hypertrophy
of heart. Head acrocephalic, flattened at the nape.
Cranial measurements: longitudinal diameter, 177; transverse, 151;
longitudinal curve, 360; transverse, 300; maximum circumference, 530.
Dynamometer: both hands, 34; right, 14; left, 17. Esthesiometer: right,
1.8; left, 1.2; tongue, 0.4. Topographic sensibility erroneous in both
hands. General electrical sensibility: right, 49; left, 43. Sensibility to
pain: right, 20; left, 27. (Normal person gives: general, 53; to pain,
38.) Temperature in axilla, 37°5. Slow to distinguish colours.
Vicious from a child; very precocious sexual habits.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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