the whole story."

"After I left you," said he, "the thought struck me,--Why cannot I
control the muscles of my system as well as my appetites and passions?
Indeed, on occasions, I have done it, at least for a short time. These
little rice-water evacuations cannot, in the nature of things, do much
harm by being retained. I can do what any man can. These frequent
demands of nature seem to me very unreasonable. I will not yield to
them. And, like a good sailor, I kept my word. For nearly a whole day I
never permitted a single evacuation. Then, after yielding obedience, for
once, to nature's clamorous demands, I again enforced my prohibitory
law. My task, the second day, was less severe than it was the first, and
on the third day I got along very comfortably. The fourth day I was
well; and to-day you see me here."

Whether he told me the truth, I do not know, of course; but I give the
statement, as nearly as I can recollect, just as it was given to me. I
have reason, however, for believing it to be true. The man is still
alive, and is as likely to live for twenty or twenty-five years to come,
as you or I, or any other individual.

Mrs. Willard, of Troy, New York, under the full impression that the seat
of human life is in the lungs, and not in the heart, and that even the
blue color of the skin during the collapse of Asiatic cholera, is owing
to an accumulation of unburnt carbon in the air cells of the lungs, made
the experiment of trusting a few patients, in this disease, to the full
influence of pure air, and nothing else. According to her account the
experiments were most admirably successful. She cured every individual
she experimented on (and it was a considerable number), and in a
comparatively short period.

It was my good fortune to escape cholera patients, with the single
exception mentioned above. However, I am quite confident that, but for
the alarm, which more than half paralyzes our efforts, we might much
more frequently recover, under its deadly influences, especially if we
begin the work of preparation in good season, and duly and faithfully
persevere. There is much in enduring to the end.

CHAPTER LXXXVII.

OBSTINACY AND SUICIDE.

Without examining the term suicide, in regard to its various shades of
meaning, I have placed it at the head of this chapter; for I think it
properly belongs there. Of this, however, I leave the reader to judge
when he has heard a statement of the facts in the case