iance.

From that time forth I saw her frequently, since I well knew that even
voluntary visits would be welcome. I found she had become convinced of
the necessity of breathing pure air, and of ventilating her room every
day. Nor did she neglect, as much as formerly, the great laws of
cleanliness. Yet, alas! in this respect, the hard hand of necessity was
upon her. She could not do all she wished. However, she could apply
water to her person daily, if she could not to her clothing and bedding;
so that, on the whole, she did not greatly suffer. Her mother did what
she could, but she was old and decrepit.

She had also made another advance. She had contrived to obtain, I hardly
know from what source, but probably from the hands of kind friends, a
small amount of good fruit to use daily, with one or more of her meals.
This excluded a part or portion of that kind of food which was more
stimulating and doubtful.

But the greatest difficulty we had to encounter was to shake off the
enormous load of narcotic medicine which had been so long prescribed for
her that she seemed unable to live without it. Morphine, in particular,
she had come to use in quantities which would have destroyed a person
who was unaccustomed to its influence, and in frequently repeated
doses. I told her she might as well die in one way as another; that the
morphine, though it afforded a little temporary relief, was wearing out
her vital energies at a most rapid rate, and that the safest, and, in
the end, the easiest way for her was, to abandon it entirely. She
followed my advice, and made the attempt.

I have forgotten how long a time it required to effect a complete
emancipation from her slavery to drugs; but the process was a gradual
one, and occupied at least several months. In the end, however, though
not without considerable suffering, she was perfectly free, not only
from her slavery to morphine, but to all other drugs. All this time,
moreover, she was as _well_, to say the least, as before; perhaps, on
the whole, a little better.

I now set myself, in good earnest, to the work of improving her physical
habits. The laws of ventilation and cleanliness, to which her attention,
as I have already intimated, had become directed, were still more
carefully heeded. She was required to retire early and rise early, and
to keep her mind occupied, though never to the point of fatigue, while
awake. Her habits with regard to food and drink were changed very