The fact that my methods in treating these cases have prevented me, and will prevent me, from becoming directly or indirectly interested in any institution other than my own, in New York City, gives me a freedom in offering advice to patients concerning what they should do after they have left my care that I should not feel if my institution were operated upon the old-time keep-them-as-long-as-you-can plan. I find it possible to suggest physical exercise and even professional training to those who especially need it with entire disinterestedness, just as I find it possible to suggest to some an investigation of some religious influence. It must be laid down as an axiom that the patient must have a mental as well as a physical change before the treatment can accomplish all the good of which it is capable. Such a mental change is highly improbable in the comfortable surroundings of the average sanatorium. No man or woman ever achieved it by sitting on a pleasant veranda in an easy-chair exchanging tales of symptoms with other invalids. THE REASON FOR THE FIXED CHARGE The principal consideration which has influenced me in shaping my policy of a definite charge and limiting the length of stay of my patients has been the fact that I find it impossible when the effect of the drug has been perfectly eliminated to hold most of the patients under restraint. The man who has won freedom from his habit feels sure of himself; he desires to get away, and he is not afraid to go out into the world, where it may be possible for him to get the drug again. He will not yield to the temptation to get it, partly because he will not want it, and partly because he knows the horror of the habit and does not wish to become involved in it again. As a matter of fact, one of the hardest tasks I have is that of inducing people to stay as long with us as we think necessary, although their prolonged stay means no additional payment to us and no additional expense to them. That is one of the principal arguments against colonization; and it is as much an argument against the average municipal or state institution as it is against the average sanatorium. The theory of colonization in this matter is all wrong. The question of a definite charge has as much influence on my own attitude as on that of the patient. From the fact that I know when a patient enters my house that I can get no further money from him or her beyond the advance payment I gain a distinct advantage. I do not feel it necessary to cater to my patient's whims, nor do I feel it necessary to sacrifice any portion of the necessary routine of the treatment because the patient may be rich or influential and may make extraordinary demands upon me. All that I have to do is to go ahead along those lines which I know are effective and which will gain results.