is lost; and then is the
time to fix upon him and draw him by main force from the slough.

Now some practitioners say, "Let him drop it gradually;" and they
proceed to stir every molecule of alcohol in the system into vile
activity by adding small doses of wine or spirit to the deadly
accumulation. The man's brain is impoverished, and the mistaken doctors
proceed to impoverish it more, so that a patient who should be cured in
forty-eight hours is kept in dragging misery for a month or more. The
proper mode of treatment is widely different. You want to nourish the
brain speedily, and at any cost, ere the ghastly depression drives the
agonized wretch to the arms of Circe once more. First, then, give him
milk. If you try milk alone, the stomach will not retain it long, so you
must mix the nourishing fluid with soda-water. Half an hour afterwards
administer a spoonful of meat-essence. Beware of giving the patient any
hot fluid, for that will damage him almost as much as alcohol. Continue
with alternate half-hourly instalments of milk and meat-essence; supply
no solid food whatever; and do not be tempted by the growing good
spirits of your charge to let him go out of doors amid temptation. At
night, after some eight hours of this rapid feeding, you must take a
risky step. Make sure that the drinker is calm, and then prepare him for
sleep. That preparation is accomplished thus. Get a draught of hydrate
of chloral made up, and be sure that you describe your man's
physique--this is most important--to the apothecary who serves you. A
very light dose will suffice, and, when it is swallowed, the drugged man
should be left in quietude. He will sleep heavily, perhaps for as much
as twelve hours, and no noise must be allowed to come near him. If he is
waked suddenly, the consequences may be bad, so that those who go to
look at him must use precautions to ensure silence. In the morning he
will awake with his brain invigorated, his muscles unagitated, and his
craving utterly gone. It is like magic; for a man who was prostrate on
Sunday morning is brisk and eager for work on Monday at noon. Whenever
the cured man feels his craving arise after a spell of labour, he should
at once recuperate his brain by rapidly-repeated doses of the
easily-assimilated meat-essence, and this, with a little strong black
coffee taken at short intervals, will tide him over the evil time. He
saves money, he keeps his working power, and he gives no shock to his