“The next day Dr. Wiggin called and gave me the following additional items, which at once placed the case in its proper light and gave the key to many of the symptoms before cited. After her confinement, which was a long and painful one, she suffered severely from wandering pains in back and hips, for which her attending physician at the time ordered tincture of opium applied externally, giving at the same time ten drops by the mouth, and the ground was broken for the building of the habit. The dose steadily increased until she came under the charge of Dr. Wiggin, some six months previous to my seeing her, when she was taking four ounces of laudanum daily, internally, besides continuing external applications as before. Attempts were made to stop the pernicious habit, but it was too late for wise counsel to avail, and the usual cunning of opium eaters procured for her the drug in spite of every effort of both husband and physician. “All forms of concurrent medication had been faithfully tried, but nothing was of use except the opium, to which it became absolutely necessary to resort occasionally, as without it the poor lady would arouse the neighborhood with agonizing screams and cries. “At this juncture, as a forlorn hope, it was decided to essay galvanism, hoping that its great vitalizing power might aid in restoring tone to the exhausted nerve centres. At my suggestion, Collis Brown’s chlorodyne was given in place of laudanum, and produced the same effect with an ounce per diem that the four ounces of the former had done. “Central galvanism was applied, with a twenty-four cell Bartlett battery, using six cells from the cilio-spinal centre to the forehead, with a downward current; then from the cervical vertebræ to the solar plexus, with an ascending current, each lasting six minutes, or until the skin was thoroughly reddened under the negative carbon point. For the first few days applications were made morning and night. In a week the vomiting had ceased and consciousness returned, and the evening sitting was omitted. After a month the dose of anodyne was gradually decreased, but with every diminution the nausea returned, and nothing but a return to the old dose would avail. But her condition was very much improved. She slept better, the eyes were normal as to color and the palms were no longer dry. At the close of the second month she was able to sit up, and the dose of anodyne was steadily cut down without the patient’s knowledge, by adding to the chlorodyne a sufficient quantity of flavored treacle to replace each dose taken, until at that time an ounce would last three days.