"That is the chief fatal disease recognised by our physicians." "And what is its nature ?" "Ah, that neither I nor any other physician can tell you.

Life 'goes out,' like a lamp when the materials supplying the electric current are exhausted; and yet here all the waste of which physic can take cognisance is fully repaired, and the circuit is not broken." "What are the symptoms, then ?" "They are all reducible to one--exhaustion of the will, the prime element of personality.

The patient ceases to _care_.

It is too much trouble to work; then too much trouble to read; then too much trouble to exert even those all but mechanical powers of thought which are necessary to any kind of social intercourse--to give an order, to answer a question, to recognise a name or a face: then even the passions die out, till the patient cannot be provoked to rate a stupid amba or a negligent wife; finally, there is not energy to dress or undress, to rise up or sit down.

Then the patient is allowed to die: if kept alive perforce, he would finally lack the energy to eat or even to breathe.