“I expect to go home in about three weeks. I would have been there before if some fool of a spy at our place had held his tongue and minded his own business. At the same time, Rosina, dear, remember what I told you at Leghorn: that they had some officers sent there to get information and instead of going home they asked somebody else and were told that I had never been sick and had never had neurasthenia. When this information was got from the officers I was called to the office and they read to me that all that I had said and done was not true. I kept on acting the fool, and as they were still doubtful they sent me here, where there is a professor who passes me every morning in the garden and says: “How are you?” I always say: “I am the same,” acting like a crazy man. Let me tell you, Rosina dear, not to say anything contrary to this in your letters because they open and read everything in order to find out everything that happens and everything that is said. Now what you must do is to ask me how I am feeling, and whether my headaches are gone, and whether I have them all the time as formerly, and any other trifle that will help me.”
Rosina’s fiancé had a strongly positive W. R. in the serum. It was negative in the fluid. He was returned to the front.
II. HYPOPHRENOSES
(THE FEEBLE-MINDED GROUP)
Moron of use at front (alienist’s report).
Case 35. (Pruvost, 1915.)
Vigouroux reports concerning a tanner of 19 who could not read, write or calculate (3 plus 8 equals 14) and had been of the 1916 class in an infantry regiment at Brest, on the occasion of his asking to be sent to the front more speedily:
Mental weakness, with insufficient school and theoretical knowledge but with the ability to assimilate practical ideas, though not knowing how to read, write or calculate; seems to have earned his living in several lines. “As a soldier, he does not know the insignia of the different ranks but understands how to obey a superior officer. Understands a gun and can tell a chargeur from a Le Bel gun. Moreover he seems to be perfectly stable, fixed in his wishes, persistently and intelligently wants to go to the front and kill Boches. He appears to be well disciplined and educable. Although feebleminded, he appears to us able to be useful at the front, though he should not be employed in any undertaking requiring initiative or foresight.”
An imbecile, superbrave.