For a few days I had only the slightest symptoms to record, but after that there developed an intestinal disturbance which gradually became pronounced. I began to get interested, wondering if it was really the drug that was responsible--those tiny tasteless powders--so, doubting it, kept on with the medicine. I suppose I was a little skeptical because of a rumour that they always gave some of the provers _saccharum lactis_, and that not infrequently records were turned in with a long string of symptoms, when the provers had only been given _sac. lac._ Naturally I did not want to attribute symptoms to drug action if I were not taking a real drug; so, though growing worse and worse, I kept on with the proving. The day came for our examination in pathology by the very professor who had solicited the provings--our skeptical pessimist. Uncomfortably ill by that time, I could hardly hold out to take the examination. Miss Wilkins had insisted that if I did not go to see Dr. “Conrad” immediately afterwards, she would go herself, so as I handed in my paper, I told him I was ill, and would like to call at his office in the afternoon. I added that I was one of the drug-provers, but was not sure whether this illness had anything to do with what I had been taking. He bent upon me those scrutinizing eyes, his face stern but kindly, and said, “Poor child, why didn’t you tell me before? How have you sat through the examination? Go home at once, and come to me at two o’clock.” That afternoon I went to his office on Commonwealth Avenue--a luxurious place, a side of life that, as students, we saw only from the outside, our entrée in Boston houses being chiefly in those of the Lynches, the Sullivans, and O’Gradys. The kind, fatherly look he bent upon me as he drew me in his office and listened to my confused, embarrassed tale, was worth it all. Weak and in pain, I was unable to tell a clear story. He snatched my note-book, read the symptoms, looking up every few minutes, then read on, after which he gave me a soothing talk, and I have loved him ever since. Though commending my zeal, he deplored the fact that I had carried it to the extent of suffering so much. “No one else did it--no one else did it,” he scolded, half to himself. “They turned in their worthless notes before the time was up, pretending they had taken the drugs faithfully when I knew they hadn’t; some of them got symptoms on taking _sac. lac._--a good list of them! but you wanted to be sure yourself--that is the only way to get at the truth.” Who would not have been willing to suffer to get this from the stern Dr. “Conrad?” Rigidly prescribing my diet and rest, he gave me some medicine and sent me home in his carriage, calling on me that evening to my delight. In two days I was as well as ever. I learned later that it was _mercury_ that I had proved, but in so weak a potency that he had been surprised at the results.