r come in conflict with anyone.
The latter part of this statement is contradicted by his relatives,
who state that for more than twenty years past, the patient has
exhibited an uncontrollable desire to sue people for all sorts of
imaginary grievances, and that on this account he frequently came into
serious conflicts. The patient is inclined to put all the blame for
his difficulties to his wife, whom he describes with a great deal of
rancor as the descendant of an insane and illegitimate grandfather and
illy-favored mother. He thinks that his wife was slightly unbalanced,
accuses her of being responsible for the death of their first child,
and of various other misconduct. However, everything went tolerably
well until April, 1906, when their second child was born. The doctor
who attended Mrs. Y. during her confinement, a very prominent local
physician, testified in open court at that time, that from his
observation of the patient's acts he believed him to be insane. This,
the patient said, precipitated a lot of trouble between him and his
wife. He does not enter into details concerning the difficulties he
had with the physician, but the details are extremely illuminating. It
appears that the patient refused to pay this doctor's bill and was
sued for the debt. At the time of the trial he gave as his defense the
following two reasons why he should not pay this bill:--The first one
was that inasmuch as this doctor lived in a part of the city which
would necessitate the crossing of a railroad grade in order to reach
the patient's house, and that on this account there was a possibility
of his being detained at the crossing during an emergency call, he had
no right to take the case in the first place, and therefore he was not
entitled to payment. His second reason was that inasmuch as this
doctor wore a beard, he carried more germs into the house than would
otherwise have had access to it; therefore he should forfeit his fee.
In 1907 his wife obtained a divorce on the grounds of cruelty and
non-support, and was given the custody of the child; this had the
effect of launching the patient upon a new series of litigation. His
first retaliating measure was the abduction of the child, which
brought about his indictment by a grand jury and subsequent arrest.
The reason he gave for taking the child out of the District was that
his wife lived in a house over an old ab