considered himself hypomanic. "He himself said that most people fell within one of the classifications of mental disease, and he felt himself to be of the manic-depressive type. We seldom saw the depressive side of him though it was undoubtedly there; ordinarily he appeared carried away with enthusiasm about his latest interest – and everything worthwhile interested him", Briggs wrote. Southard experienced chronic headaches and minor seizures (sometimes accompanied by partial vision loss for several hours), which he attributed to mental strain. A 1901 episode kept him in Boston City Hospital for a week, and Southard said he was diagnosed with "acute brain tire". A similar event several years later was diagnosed as vascular neurosis. According to Gay, a physical examination several months before Southard's death may have indicated an endocrine gland problem, but no specific condition was diagnosed. A member of two local chess clubs, Southard was described in his New York Times obituary as "one of the foremost amateur chess players in America". He often arrived at his laboratory after spending the night playing chess. After his death, in "metaphors more appropriate for a comet than a man", friends described the intellect which allowed Southard to play up to six blind chess matches simultaneously. At Danvers State Hospital, he introduced a move he called the Danvers Opening. Southard frequently traveled from Boston to New York City to participate in Walter Arensberg's salons, bringing scholarship to discussions of contemporary social science topics. Arensberg was also friends with artists such as Marcel Duchamp. Southard analyzed the dreams of Arensberg's guests, and discussed the meaning of Duchamp's work with the artist. Perhaps influenced by Arensberg and his friends, Southard began to write experimental poetry. He was a member of the Wicht Club, a social and intellectual group of young Harvard academics. Death Southard traveled to New York City on February 1, 1920, to lecture to medical societies. He spoke to the Society of Neurology of New York on February 3, and delivered a mental hygiene lecture at the New York Academy of Medicine the following day before developing pneumonia on February 5. Despite care by three Presbyterian Hospital physicians at the Prince George Hotel, Southard died on February 8, at the age of 43. Canavan became the acting laboratory director at Boston Psychopathic after his death. In 1925 she published Elmer Ernest Southard and His Parents: A Brain Study, following the