the demands of life, centered in self, given up to the kaleidoscopic
play of their emotions, which are of short duration, imperfect as to
depth, varying in intensity, and depending upon any and every external
influence, these individuals are very uncertain in their opinions,
judgments, and motives for action. They go through life without any
direction, without any guiding idea, without initiative, and without
will, incapable of any kind of systematic labor, yet at times ready,
under the influence of a temporary affect, to sacrifice everything in
order to carry out what later on proves worthless and vain. Lacking in
sure criteria and guides, they are slavishly dependent upon momentary
external influences, and under unfavorable conditions of life suffer
want and misery and give way to temptation, frequently falling into a
life of vagabondage, drunkenness, and crime. In prison they often
develop mental disorders, are looked upon as malingerers, and oscillate
between prison and the insane asylum, only to begin the old game over
again so soon as they again come in contact with life.

It is little wonder, then, that the psychiatrist in dealing with these
unfortunates frequently finds himself at a loss to tell where health
leaves off and disease begins. The psychoses which these individuals
develop are in the great majority of instances purely psychogenetic in
character, one of the many distinguishing features of which is a marked
susceptibility of the symptoms to be influenced by external occurrences.
This tendency of the symptoms to shape themselves in accordance with
occurrences in the immediate environment frequently leads to the
suspicion of malingering, because there seems to be altogether too much
discretion displayed by these alleged insane.

I have elsewhere[14] reported a series of these cases and entered into a
detailed discussion both of the personality and the nature of the
psychoses from which these individuals suffered. Most of my cases had
been both in prison and in hospitals for the insane on more than one
occasion, every arrest and imprisonment having been apparently
sufficient to bring out a fresh attack of mental disease.

The following case is fairly illustrative of this type:--

J. H., white male, age twenty-seven on admission, November 13, 1913.
While serving a year's sentence at the Portsmouth Naval Prison for
fraudulent enlistment the patient told the authorities there that on
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