diarrhœa, which had come on during the night, and I found her in a deplorable condition indeed. Her brother, and the mistress of the boarding-school, were so alarmed at the consequences of their conduct, that they were quite unfit to give any advice about her treatment; they could hardly indeed give me a coherent account of what had passed; and the poor young lady was therefore entrusted to the care of servants. She was then suffering the most excruciating pain at stomach, violent cramps, and convulsive action of the muscles of the arms, back, and legs, from which she had scarcely any intermission. The vomiting and purging were almost incessant. The dejections were bloody, slimy, and very scanty, but at first had been copious and feculent. The matter vomited was of a dark green colour, streaked with blood. The tongue was loaded with a thick crust, resembling in colour the matter vomited. The countenance was pale, contracted, and with that peculiar expression which announces abdominal suffering. The pulse was small, hard, and frequent, scarcely indeed to be numbered. The whole appearance of the patient was such as to excite well-grounded fears for her life. Being quite unable to swallow, four grains of opium were directed to be thrown into the rectum. They were not, however, long retained, and were not productive of benefit. An anodyne embrocation was therefore applied to the pit of the stomach, fomentations to the feet; and, as soon as it could be got ready, she was placed in a warm bath. This so much quieted the irritation of the stomach, that she was enabled to swallow about thirty drops of laudanum, from which there was a decided alleviation of her sufferings for nearly an hour. During ten days she remained in a very doubtful state, subject to frequent severe attacks of diarrhœa, with intense pain of the bowels. Her emaciation during this time was most extraordinary. The expression of her French nurse, “_décharnée_,” was literally applicable to her; her arms and body were almost fleshless—her breasts, which had been large, were now perfectly flat—the calves of her legs had quite disappeared—and her thighs were not much thicker than her wrists, when in health. I never witnessed any thing like such extenuation in so short a space of time. By the steady and very liberal use of opium, she recovered to a certain degree; but when I last saw her, many months after her illness, she remained subject to frequent violent spasms of the stomach, during which opium alone gave her relief. Her nervous system had been much shattered. She repeatedly declared to me that she seldom enjoyed an hour’s respite from the most wretched depression of spirits, and since her illness had never felt any thing like her former buoyancy of mind. The few moments of ease she knew were purchased by large doses of laudanum, to the habitual use of which her sufferings had forced her. She was still very pale, and her emaciation, though much less, was yet very great.