Dr.
Seward's Diary4 September Zoophagous patient still keeps up our
interest in him. He had only one outburst and that was yesterday at an unusual
time. Just before the stroke of noon he began to grow restless. The attendant
knew the symptoms, and at once summoned aid. Fortunately the men came at a run,
and were just in time, for at the stroke of noon he became so violent that it
took all their strength to hold him. In about five minutes, however, he began
to get more quiet, and finally sank into a sort of melancholy, in which state
he has remained up to now. The attendant tells me that his screams whilst
in the paroxysm were really appalling. I found my hands full when I got in, attending
to some of the other patients who were frightened by him. Indeed, I can quite
understand the effect, for the sounds disturbed even me, though I was some distance
away. It is now after the dinner hour of the asylum, and as yet my patient sits
in a corner brooding, with a dull, sullen, woe-begone look in his face, which
seems rather to indicate than to show something directly. I cannot quite
understand it. |
