Somehow it seemed to be associated with consciousness, for after this the sense of the reality of things grew dim and blurred to him.

He ceased to know exactly what he was doing.

His intellectual parts dropped away one by one, leaving only the instincts, the blind, unreasoning impulses of the animal.
Still he continued his restless, lurching walk back and forth in his room, his head hanging low and swinging from side to side with the movement of his gait.

He had become so nervous that the restraint imposed upon his freedom of movement by his bathrobe and his loose night-clothes chafed and irritated him.

At length he had stripped off everything.
Suddenly and without the slightest warning Vandover's hands came slowly above his head and he dropped forward, landing upon his palms.