sufficient time be taken for the trial.

A further condition lies in the attempt being made under the most
favorable circumstances in respect to absolute leisure from business
of every kind. That nothing can be accomplished by persons whose time
is not at their own command, by a graduated effort protracted through
many months, I do not say, for I do not believe it; but any speedy
relinquishment of opium--that is, within a month or two--seems to me
to be wholly impossible, except to those who are so situated that they
can give up their whole time and attention to the effort.

This effort should be made with the advice and under the eye of an
intelligent physician. So far as I have had opportunity to know, the
profession generally is not well informed on the subject. In my own
case I certainly found no one who seemed familiar with the phenomena
pertaining to the relinquishment of opium, or whose suggestions
indicated even in cases where the physician has had no experience
whatever in this class of disorders, he can, if a well-educated man,
bring his medical knowledge and medical reasoning to bear upon the
various states, both of body and mind, which the varying sufferings of
the patient may make known to him. Were there, indeed, no professional
helps to be secured by such consultation, it is still of infinite
service to the patient to know some one to whom he can frequently
impart the history of his struggle and the progress he is making. Such
confidence may do much to encourage the patient, and no one is so
proper a person in whom to repose this confidence as an intelligent
physician.

The amount of time which should be devoted to the experiment must
depend very greatly upon these considerations--the constitution of