should suffice for a reduction to forty grains. It will probably be
better to divide the slightly diminished daily allowance into five
portions, to be taken at intervals of two hours from rising in the
morning till the daily quantity is consumed. With such a graduated
scale of descent, it will be found at the end of two weeks that
one-half of the original quantity of opium has been abandoned, and
that, with so little pain of body, and so much gain to the general
health and spirits, that the completion of the task will seem to the
patient ridiculously easy. He will soon learn, however, that he has
not found out all the truth.

In the third week a further gain of ten grains can the more easily be
made by still further dividing the daily portion into an increased
number of parts, say ten. The feeling of restlessness and irritability
by this time will have become somewhat annoying, and the actual
struggle will be seen to have commenced. It will doubtless require at
this point some persistence of character to bear up against the
increased impatience, both of body and spirit, which marks this stage
of the descent. The feelings will endeavor to palm off upon the
judgment a variety of reasons why, for a time, a larger quantity
should be taken; but this is merely the effect of the diminished
amount of the stimulant. Sleep will probably be found to be of short
continuance as well as a good deal broken. Reading has ceased to
interest, and a fidgety, fault-finding temper not unlikely has begun
to exhibit itself. At this point, I am satisfied, most opium-eaters
who have endeavored in vain to renounce the habit, have broken down.
Their resolution has failed them not because they were unable to stand
much greater punishment than had yet been inflicted, but because they
yielded to the impression that some other time would prove more
opportune for the final experiment. Under this delusion they have