The brothers (I shall not mention their names) were good friends of mine in my old middle-school days but I had not seen them for many years and had gradually lost track of them. Recently I heard that one of them was seriously ill, and as I happened to be visiting my native heath, I went to call on them. I saw only one of them and he told me that it was his younger brother who had been ill. He thanked me for coming such a long way to inquire after his brother and said that the latter had recovered and had gone to a certain district to await appointment. He laughed as he showed me two volumes of diaries which his brother had kept during his illness, saying that I, an old friend of theirs, might as well have them and see for myself what manner of illness it was. I took the volumes home and after going over them decided that he must have suffered an attack of what is known as persecution phobia.
The writing was confused and incoherent and full of wild and extraordinary fancies. There were no dates, but from the lack of uniformity in the shade of ink and in the style of calligraphy, it was evident that the entries covered quite a period of time. Occasionally there were passages with some degree of coherence. I transcribe here some of these passages and present them for the study of the medical world. I have not changed anything in matters of fact and style but have
