8. Deficiency and irregularity of sleep.

9. Occasional prostration of strength.

10. Inaptitude for steady exertion.

I mention without hesitancy these consequences of the abandonment of
opium, from the belief that any person really in earnest in his desire
to relinquish the habit will be more likely to persevere by knowing at
the start exactly what obstacles he may meet in his progress toward
perfect recovery, than by having it gradually revealed to him, and
that at times when his body and mind are both enfeebled by what he has
passed through. With a single exception, the dismost serious one I
have been obliged to encounter. Whether it is one of the specific
effects of the disuse of opium, or only one of the many general
results of a disordered constitution, I do not know.

I can only say in my own case, that after the lapse of years, this
particular difficulty is not wholly overcome. This electric condition,
so to call it, still continues a serious annoyance. But when it
occurs, the pain is of less duration, and gradually, but very slowly,
is of diminished frequency. Violent exercise will sometimes relieve
it; a long walk has often the same effect. The use of stimulants
brings alleviation for a time, but there seems to be no permanent
remedy except in the perfect restoration of the system by time from
this effect of the wear and tear of opium upon the nerves.
Irregularity in the action of the liver, while singularly marked
in the earlier stages of the experiment, and continuing for years
to make its agency manifestly felt, is in a considerable degree