, no hope
of any quick change for the better can be entertained. I am no stranger
to the fearful malady."

"Attacks of all diseases," I answered to this, "are more or less severe,
according to the nature of the predisposing and exciting causes. So
far as your daughter is concerned, I should think, from the very slight
opportunity I have had of forming an opinion in regard to her, that
she is not readily susceptible of morbific intrusions. Under an unusual
exposure to exciting causes, the balance of health has been overcome.
If my presumption is correct, we have the steady effort of nature, in
co-operation with remedial agencies, working towards a cure."

"Do you think the attack light, or severe?" the mother asked, speaking
more calmly.

"Neither light nor severe; but of a character, judging from the first
impression made upon it, entirely controllable by medicines."

This opinion gave her confidence. As I had spoken without any apparent
concealment, she evidently believed the case to stand exactly as I had
stated it. After leaving medicine to be taken, every two hours, for the
first part of the night, I went away.

In the morning, I found my patient in that comatose state, the usual
attendant upon typhoid fever. She aroused herself on my entrance, and
answered all questions clearly. She had no pain in the head, nor any
distressing symptoms. Her skin was soft and moist. All things looked
favorable. I gave, now, only gentle diaphoretics, and let the case
progress, watching it with the closest attention. In this, I followed my
usual course of treatment as to giving medicines. If I could produce a
reaction, or remove some obstruction, and give nature a chance, I did
not think it wise to keep on with drugs, which, from their general
poisonous qualities, make even well people sick--regarding the struggle
of life with disease as hazardous enough, without increasing the risk by
adding a new cause of disturbance, unless the need of its presence were
unmistakably indicated.

The course of this fever is always slow and exhausting. My patient sunk
steadily, day by day, while I continued to watch the case with more than
common anxiety. At the end of a week, she was feeble as an infant, and
lay, for the most part, in a state of coma. I visited her two or three
times every day, and had the thought of her almost constantly in my
mind. Her mother, nerved for the occasion, was calm, patient, and
untiring. The excitement which app