alienist. The law as it is laid down in the statutes,
especially in this country, does not permit of any intermediary stages
between mental health and mental disease. An individual, according to
law, must either be sane or insane. This point seems to me to be of very
vital importance, and I shall have occasion to refer to it again in the
consideration of our clinical material.

The part played in lying by disturbances of the apprehensive, retentive,
and reproductive faculties will not be discussed here in detail. These
undeniably have their influence in facilitating the mechanism of lying.
But to attribute this phenomenon wholly to disturbances of this nature
would be to assign to it a purely passive role, whereas experience
teaches that back of every lie are active forces, either conscious or
unconscious, which give birth to it and determine its type and degree.

The following two cases will illustrate better than any formal
description could what is meant by pathological lying, a
psychopathological state for which Delbrueck proposed the term
"Pseudologia phantastica":

E. W. S., a colored male, aged thirty-two years, was admitted to the
Government Hospital for the Insane from Fort D. A. Russell, Wyoming,
on January 29, 1912, on a medical certificate which stated the
following: "Patient is a native of Porto Rico; has been sailor and
soldier; has occasionally used alcoholic beverages, but usually the
light wines or beer; is very good-natured, occasionally melancholy and
lachrymose; gave a history of 'fits', and was previously discharged
from the army on this account. He was thought to be 'queer' in his
organization and had more or less trouble with the men, who made fun
of him. He was sent to the hospital from the guard-house in October,
1911, and his mental condition noted at that time. His present
symptoms were described as delusions of grandeur: 'Queen Victoria was
his instructor in English', 'King Edward of England was his school
chum.' He thinks he was royal interpreter. He does speak a number of
languages fluently and, so far as we can learn, with fair correctness
(?)."

On admission to this hospital the patient was in excellent health
physically; Wassermann reaction with the blood-serum negative.
Mentally he was clearly oriented in all respects and fully in touch
with his immediate environment. He comprehended readily what was said
to him, and his replies, aside from