disease was not scrofula, as I had pronounced it, but dropsy of the
joints.

It was not long afterward that the mother paid us a visit, and brought,
well written out, the substance, as she said it was, of quite a number
of communications from Dr. Rush. Much was said in them about the
necessity of exercise and a plain diet. And, in general, so far as the
mere treatment was concerned, the statements of the spiritual doctor
accorded so well with those of the earthly one, that had I been a
believer in these modern mysteries, I should have been highly gratified,
not only on Thomas's account, but my own.

But the spirit doctor urged a few variations in the treatment of the
young man. Beside pressing a little harder than myself the use of green
vegetables, and particularly of vegetable juices, he requested, with
great apparent earnestness, that he might be permitted to occupy a room
heated by a wood fire, rather than by coal. He also made a few other
suggestions of less importance.

His mother was a very good woman, save her great credulity. And even
here, perhaps, I do her injustice, for there were some curious facts and
coincidences. The venerable spirit doctor appeared to have possessed
himself of certain secrets which it was extremely puzzling to conjecture
how an impostor could have obtained.

After spending a day or two with me, and giving me "much exhortation,"
the mother returned to her friends. Of her safe arrival, as well as of
certain changes that had been resolved on, the husband informed me, by a
letter, which, so far as the case of Thomas is concerned, I copy entire.

"Dear Sir:--By Mrs. P., in her recent visit to your place,
you have been made acquainted with some of the
manifestations of spirits, made to us through a young lady,
a medium of our acquaintance.

"The communications purporting to come from Dr. Rush (as he
says in his last communication, tell Dr. ---- that it is the
veritable old Dr. Rush, the signer of the Declaration of
Independence), and with such apparent earnestness and
reality, we feel that, to us, they are something more than
human or earthly, and of momentous account in this case of
Thomas, and that we are not at liberty longer to disregard
them. And though we have great confidence in yourself and
your practice, we hope you will not think we are losing
either when I say that we have decided to have Thomas
retu