An unusual opportunity presented itself for the study of narcolepsy in a combat soldier. This patient began to have symptoms in 1935, and his disorder was not recognized correctly in premilitary life or in the precombat period of his military career. As a result he went through two long campaigns in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations. The unusual nature of his experiences not only provides an interesting story but throws some light on the pathogenesis of this disorder.
REPORT OF A CASE
Family History.
—The patient's father, a Scotch-Irishman, died at the age of 64, of cerebral hemorrhage. His mother, aged 69, is living and well. The patient is the sixth of 8 siblings. A brother and a sister died of traumatic causes; the remainder are living and well except for a sister aged 38, the fifth sibling. She is described as being "highstrung"; she ran away from home at