As an adult he had suffered from recurrent spells of amnesia. In 1908, while in Bologna, Italy, he had a complete breakdown and was picked up by police while wandering aimlessly down a road. Unable to identify himself, he was beaten and thrown into a dungeon, where he almost starved to death. The British ambassador to Italy heard of his plight and managed to get him out of the prison and into an asylum in Italy, then to England, where he spent the next two years recovering.