Nostalgic temperament; depression on entering service; rheumatism. A box falls from an airplane near by: Fear and tears; later depression, nostalgia, dreams, hyperthyroidism.
Case 320. (Bennati, October, 1916.)
An Italian private in the infantry was recalled to military service. He was a small farmer, and being disposed to homesickness, grew depressed from the day he left for service. His sleep was disturbed, he was greatly affected by the wet and damp of the trenches, and was in a state of continual fear. Finally, pains, hypersensitiveness, and fever developed.
As an enemy airplane passed over one day, a box fell at the man’s feet and threw him into a profound fear with tears. He was conducted to a tent to rest; his regiment was shortly sent to the rear, and he remained on active service for a few days despite the fever and pains. Finally the swelling of his leg compelled him to take to bed. (Fatigue in antebellum life had always shown itself in aches of the legs.) He had now been in active service about a month and his homesickness overcame him. He was in a state of deep physical and mental depression. It was not his own troubles so much as those of his family which preoccupied him. His knees hurt him so that he had to weep; or if Sardinia was mentioned, he cried, and said, “Oh, how I love Sardinia!” He grew fatigued very easily. He had many dreams about Sardinia, his father, and the war, especially dreaming about being wounded in the legs (question of being stimulated by the joint aches). The reflexes were normal, though slight tremors set up in the legs after testing. The thyroid gland was somewhat swollen, and it appears that the patient had noticed this five days before entering hospital. The patient was rather vagotonic; pulse-rate stood at 56; oculocardiac-reflex, 56-84; Mannkopf negative; Thomayer and Erben marked (56-88 and 88-60); von Graefe marked; Stellwag present.