Case 151. (Kastan, January, 1916.)

In October, 1914, a German soldier returned to his barracks late from a drinking bout. He insolently called for order, brandishing his arms, and when the captain rebuked him, he kept a cigar in his mouth. Examined in hospital (Allenberg), he was very reticent at first but wrote his name up over the bed with the additional word “Dead.” He answered, “I don’t know” to most questions. Although it was December, he said the season was summer. He was to be shot for disrespect, he said, but showed more disrespect at every remonstrance. “What is your regiment?” “I am no soldier at all, you know. I have already been discharged as unfit for service.” “Have you been in prison?” “I don’t know. My father often thrashed me.” Then suddenly, after a moment, “I was in prison five, seven, and two years, and my father was in prison four, six, and three years.” He said that he had drunk ether and urged the physician to try it, as one saw all sorts of beautiful pictures and figures and heard music.

Upon investigation, it was found that the man had been in a provincial sanatorium for some form of degenerative mental disease with excitement. He, at this time, had given a number of fantastic stories concerning his wanderings. For example, he said he had come from Australia, where he had eaten snipes and crows; that he was on his way home and would get there in half an hour (real distance 10 hours). Or again, he would roll his eyes, assume a false name and say that he had come from Morocco, or that he was the emperor and would not play soldier. When asked to repeat digits, he habitually omitted the last digit. He had been a poor scholar, and of a tricky and treacherous character.

Despite this history, he had behaved well in the army at first, though insolent to superiors. On July 5 he had a heavy drinking bout, and wrote next day to his mother that he was going to commit suicide. At this time he had been put for safe keeping in a cell, where he saw foxes making as if to bite him. He also said that he was a rich nobleman, a cavalry captain with a servant (asked to be given his pressed clothes and his cigarettes), and was being pursued. He rode his pillow as if it were his horse, and hid it in the horse’s stable, namely, the bed. He ate nothing, as he thought everything was poisoned; smeared himself with faeces and drank urine as “strawberry punch.”

We are evidently here dealing with a psychopath of schizophrenic tendencies, strongly colored, however, by alcoholism. The patient’s father was a drunkard, and a brother and sister were insane.

Re schizophrenia in the German army, Saenger remarks that like paresis, so also latent dementia praecox becomes acute under war conditions. E. Meyer states that amongst 1126 officers admitted to his hospital, August 1, 1915, there were 352 that had either psychoses or neuroses, amongst which were 148 psychogenic cases (either psychopathic or hysterical), 128 with what he terms a congenital psychopathic diathesis, and 76 with traumatic neuroses. The cases of congenital diathesis were somewhat difficult to diagnose, since but 44 of these were clearly psychopathic and in the remainder the question of dementia praecox or of cyclothymic conditions arose.

Stier gives statistics for 1905 and 1906 in the German army, namely 35 per cent of dementia praecox cases. Under war conditions the army has developed far fewer cases: Bonhoeffer, 7 per cent; Meyer, 7.5 per cent; Hahn, 13 per cent. But although dementia praecox figures so much less frequently in the mobilized army than in the army of peace times (manic depressive psychosis is also less in evidence under war conditions), the psychopathic constitutions, hysterias, traumatic neuroses, and the like, run from 17.5 per cent (Stier, 1905-1906) to 54 per cent (Bonhoeffer), 37.5 (Meyer), 43 per cent (Hahn).