The doctor's yielding to the drug habit is a simple process, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred unaccompanied by any unworthy tendency toward dissipation. In another part of this book I make extensive reference to the fact that nowhere in the text-books by means of which the medical students of the world receive their education is any proper attention paid to the psychology of the drug habit. We may assume that a doctor, having lost sleep because of a difficult case, is confronted on his return to his office by another that demands immediate and skilful attention. He is tired and very likely he himself is ill. He cannot yield to his worries or illness, as he would demand one of his patients to yield. He must "brace up." He knows that in the stock of habit-forming drugs that he uses in his profession lies the material which will brace him up. He tries it; it succeeds. This doctor has begun to nibble at the habit, and he does not know his danger. He himself does not believe that one or two or a few doses will fasten that habit upon him. He finds that a certain dosage produces the necessary desired result upon the first day; he is stimulated to new efforts in behalf of his patients, and because those new efforts are the result of stimulation, they produce abnormal weariness. This exhaustion must be overcome, and the result is another dosage of the drug; and this time the dosage must be larger than the first, for both his toleration for the drug and his weariness have increased. Only a few days of such experiences are necessary to fasten the habit upon him. I have often endeavored to imagine the thrill of horror which must chill a doctor's soul when he finds that this has happened. His position is a dreadful one. He has lost control. He must tell no one, for if he tells, disgrace and the loss of his means of livelihood will be but matters of a short time. He knows nothing of any means of real relief; he cannot help himself; he is familiar with the dangers attendant on the fake cures which are widely advertised. He is confronted by a stone wall. He must either continue his dosage, thus enabling him to keep on with his practice, or he must accept ruin and defeat; and to continue his dosage is the easiest thing imaginable, for the drug has been by law intrusted to his keeping and is close at hand. Another doctor who is specially susceptible to drug addictions is the one who has been accustomed to alcoholic stimulation. Any doctor who drinks alcohol, when he finds himself beset by arduous labor involving loss of sleep, or is confronted by cases of such a complex nature that they involve a great deal of mental worry on his part, is likely to drink more than usual. Thus work and worry, the two things which make him most liable to the evil effects of any stimulation, are likely to drive him directly into over-stimulation.