History.
—H. M., man, aged 42, roofer, admitted to Ward L-4, Second Surgical Division, Cornell, Bellevue Hospital, Nov. 10, 1918, had received a stab wound in the left chest, from which there was considerable hemorrhage. The family history was negative. The patient had had gonorrhea in youth. Since the age of 18 he had been subject to "fits" occurring on an average of once a month and generally following alcoholic excesses. There was a pronounced alcoholic history with more or less regular Saturday night sprees. Otherwise the history was negative. On the night before admission the patient had been drinking heavily, and on the day of admission at 2:30 p. m. he came home and entered into an argument with his wife. He was evidently abusive, and in self defense, the wife seized a "long, sharp butcher knife" and stabbed him in the chest. The patient bled profusely from the