etion would not answer in a case like this, whether of
bleeding, blistering, or cathartics. In these circumstances, I contrived
to while away the time in a routine of that negative character which, in
true medical language, means laboriously doing nothing.

He was visited about twice a week. I heard patiently all his
complaints, and endeavored to be patient under all my disappointments,
for disappointments I had to encounter at nearly every step. No active
treatment whatever would have the general effect I desired and intended.
If I gave him but a single dose of elixir paregoric for his nervousness,
it only added, nine times in ten, to the very woes it was intended to
relieve. My policy--and I fully believe it was the only true policy--was
to leave him to himself and to Nature, as much as possible.

Though I have spoken here of what I regarded as the true policy in the
case then under my care, yet, after all, the truest course would have
been to call for consultation some wiser head than my own. Another
individual, even though he were no wiser than I, might have aided me
most essentially, in compliance with, and in confirmation of, the good
old adage--"Two eyes see more than one."

Why, then, did I not call on some inquiring and highly experienced
physician? It was not that I was too proud to do so, nor that I was too
jealous of my reputation. It was not that I feared any evil result to
myself. It was rather because I did not, at first, think it really
necessary; and then, subsequently, when I supposed it to be really
needful, I feared my patient would grudge the expense. This fear, by the
way, was grounded in something more than mere conjecture. The proposal
had been practically made, and had been rejected.

In this general way things went on for some time. The friends grew
uneasy, as they should have done; and one or two of them, now that it
was almost too late, spoke of another physician as counsel. My own
readiness and more than readiness for this seemed to have the effect to
quiet the patient, though it had the contrary effect on his friends.
They appeared to construe my own liberality and the admixture of modesty
and conscientiousness, which were conspicuous in my general behavior,
into self-distrust, and hence began themselves to distrust me.

The patient's state of mind--for he was a man whose habits of thinking
and feeling approximated very closely to those of the miser--more than
once reminded me of some d