Medicine: Unhappy Anniversary

Without joy, pride or sense of achievement, officials of Topeka (Kans.) State Hospital last week marked the70th anniversary of the admission of their oldest patient. The patient did not even know that she was making medical history of a negative kind, for she has spent the whole of a normal life span in a world apart, out, of all touch with reality. Nothing was done for her in the years, back before 1900, when treatment might have helped; now it is too late.

Miss X, a shrunken little woman (five feet, 105 Ibs.) of 83, was an overconscientious child in a typical...