Further, the advance he has made has reacted profitably on his mental condition, and if his fickleness and vacillation persist, at the least the trend of the educative exercises has been in the direction of reinforcement of the will. Hence is it that he is now more attentive, less introspective, less capricious; he is no longer overwhelmed at the gravity of his condition; he is conscious of having taken its measure, and of his power to master it. We have also applied Brissaud's method to the treatment of variable chorea, with no less encouraging results. Its worth in cases of mental torticollis has been noted by several authors as well as by ourselves. A cure resulted in a peculiarly difficult instance recorded by Martin[230]: A young man of twenty-six suffered from melancholia and hypochondriasis. He used to complain that his limbs were hopelessly rotten, that his hands, feet, legs, were gone, vanished; his head and neck had ceased to exist. So easily was he irritated that to most questions he vouchsafed no answer. His sentiments of affection were much blunted; a visit from his mother evoked no pleasurable sensation. All day long he used to lounge on a couch, his head sunk on his breast, and inclined somewhat to the right. The attitude was exaggerated if he was addressed, but while he could raise his head, by the help of his hand, to regard his interlocutor, it resumed its position of flexion as soon as he withdrew the support. Confined to the left side of his face was a tic which consisted in abrupt and jerky elevation of the corner of the mouth. On request, he would gain his feet laboriously and walk with abdomen protuberant, back arched, and legs apart. From time to time the neck musculature on the left side was the seat of convulsive movements. The left sternomastoid and trapezius were in a state of tonic contraction, and on any attempt being made to correct this vicious attitude, spasm occurred, and the patient resisted to his utmost. On March 10, 1900, treatment was begun; an effort was made to gain the patient's confidence by explaining that a cure was within the bounds of possibility, and by demonstrating to him that his limbs, which were in a state of slight contracture, could be moved by his hand. The procedure was renewed three times a day, and followed by baths and massage.