"It is easy for you to sit by in your strength and see me suffer," said a woman once to me. She was on the verge of the morphia habit, and I was trying to break it off abruptly. I felt, as any gentle-hearted man must feel, the sting and hurt of her words. Next day she said to me, "Of course you were right. I used to talk that way to B----, and he never could stand it." He was her husband and a physician. She got well easily. I do not believe that most women who sin in this way slip into it either quite so ignorantly and so unwarned as they would have you to suppose. Nearly always there is a time when some one--the physician, a friend, or their own reason--bids them pause, reflect, and choose. "Alas I for thee, if thou from thine own soul dost turn and flee. Better the house and company of pain; Better distress; Better the stones of strife, the bread with tears; Humiliation and despair and fears; All, all the heart can suffer, the soul know, Rather than with the bestial train to go, With base rejoicings, ignorant of woe."[3] [Footnote 3: "Sylvian, and Other Poems," by Philip Varley.] THE MORAL MANAGEMENT OF SICK OR INVALID CHILDREN. Not long ago a pretty little girl of ten was brought to me from a long distance to get my advice as to a slight paralysis of one leg. The trouble had existed for several years. I soon saw that the child was irritable, sensitive, and positive, and I was, therefore, careful to approach her gently. The moment it was proposed to show me the leg, she broke into a fury of rage, and no inducement I could offer enabled me to effect my purpose. An appeal to the parents, and from them to force, ended in a distressing battle. She bit, scratched, kicked, and at last won a victory, and was left sullen and sobbing on the floor. Next day the same scene was repeated. It is true that at length they were able to undress her, but neither threats nor persuasion would keep her quiet long enough to enable me to apply the simplest tests. The case was obscure, and demanded the most careful study. Their time was limited, so that at length they were obliged to take her home in despair, without any guiding opinion from me, and with no advice, except as to her moral education, concerning which I was sufficiently explicit. I have seen many such illustrations of a common evil, and have watched the growth to adult life of some of these cases of wrecked character, and observed the unpleasant results which came as they grew older. I have used an extreme case as a text, because I desire to fix attention on the error which parents and some doctors are apt to commit in cases of chronic ailments in children.