scrofulous tendency that lay at the bottom or basis of his
complaints, I proceeded to treat him accordingly. I was to have him
under my care three months, during which time, it was believed,
something might be done, if ever. At least, it was believed that a
beginning might be made, if indeed the disease should prove to be at all
curable.

He was subjected to the treatment, with few variations, which is
mentioned in the preceding chapter. He was not permitted, however, to do
much in the way of deep breathing till his general health and strength
could be improved by other measures. Warm water, in his case, was
preferred, also, to cold, and was used in the form of a tub-bath, at
five o'clock in the afternoon.

Thomas had been with me about three weeks, without much variation of
condition or prospects, when I received a long letter from his friends,
the purport of which was that they had been favored with a communication
from the "spirit world," which was attended with the appearance of so
much truth and reality, that they were not at liberty wholly to
disregard it. The communication purported to be made by the late Dr.
Benjamin Rush, of Philadelphia.

As these friends of Thomas well knew I was not a believer in this
new-fangled spiritualism, they had taken much pains to satisfy me that I
was to have for my venerable counsellor not a mere pretender, but the
veritable Dr. Rush himself. As one evidence in the case, they had
inquired through the "medium," who were the present associates of the
good doctor in his new abode; who, nothing loath, had deigned to gratify
their supposed curiosity, by giving them the names of five distinguished
physicians, among whom were the elder and younger Dr. Ingalls, of
Massachusetts, and Dr. Sanborn, of New Hampshire.

And then, with regard to Thomas, he only said, at first, that he was
very much interested in him, and that he would examine him and report.
Soon after this, at another communication, he said his case was a
difficult one, but he thought not incurable. He added, that he was
already in very good hands, the best, perhaps, that could be found in
this mundane sphere, but rather cautiously insinuated that there were
symptoms in the case which I had not yet got hold of, but which would,
if rightly apprehended, modify, in some of its particulars, my
treatment. What it was in the case which I had not discovered, he did
not say directly, but subsequently intimated that the young man's