impression that the habit once mastered, a speedy restoration to
health would follow. I was by no means prepared, therefore, for the
almost inappreciable gain in the weeks which succeeded, and in some
anxiety consulted a number of physicians, who each suggested in a
timid way the trial, some of strychnine, some of valerian, some of
lupuline, hyoscyamus, ignatia, belladonna, and what not. I do not know
that I derived the slightest benefit from any of these prescriptions,
or from any other therapeutic agency, unless I except the good effects
for a few days of bitters, and of cold shower-baths from a tank in
which ice was floating.

The most judicious of the medical gentlemen whose aid I invoked, was,
I think, the one who replied to my inquiry for his bill, "What for? I
have done you no good, and have learned more from you than you have
from me."

This constitutes the entire history of my medical experience, and is
mentioned as being the only, and a very small adjunct to the great
remedy--patient, persistent, obstinate endurance. So exceeding slow
has been the process toward the restoration of a natural condition of
the system, that writing now, at the expiration of more than a year
since opium was finally abandoned, it seems to me very uncertain when,
if ever, this result will be reached. Between four and five months
elapsed before I was at all capable of commanding my attention or
controlling the nervous impatience of mind and body. I then assented
to a proposal which involved the necessity of a good deal of steady
work, in the hope that constant occupation would divert the attention
from the nervousness under which I suffered and would restore the
self-reliance which had so long failed me. It was a foolish
experiment, and might have proved a fatal one. The business I had