In chronic cases, which are going on gradually to a fatal termination, there sometimes occurs either a temporary pause in the onward course of the disease, or an alleviation of the symptoms of so decided a character, that the patient and the physician cannot avoid indulging for the moment the hope of a recovery. At such times the bosom of the physician is the seat of conflicting hopes and fears. He hardly dares to hope, when he calmly surveys the whole case from the beginning. And yet he has known, he has himself _seen_ some strange recoveries, perhaps even more strange than such a result would be in the case before him. What now is his duty to his patient? Shall he tell him the worst, as it is expressed, and thus extinguish his rising hopes? Shall he say to him, “This very probably is only a truce for a little while, and then your now dormant disease will renew its attack, and perhaps with more vehemence; and, even at this time, it may be secretly carrying on the work of destruction, while the remedies are merely administering to your comfort, and smoothing your passage to the tomb?” To say nothing of the evil of such a course, if the case be susceptible of a cure, it cannot be an advisable one, if the prolongation of life and the alleviation of suffering be objects worthy of the aim of the physician; for such a course would in most cases have a strong tendency to defeat the attainment of these objects. If the friends of the patient deem it important that such a view of his case should be presented to his mind, let them take the responsibility of doing it themselves, and not call upon the physician to do it. Ask not him to come to his patient with the look and language of despair, and utterly dissever the idea of hope from the efforts which he makes and the remedies which he administers. Put no such unnatural, and cheerless, and, I may add, profitless office upon him. I remember once being strongly urged to such a course by the friends of a patient. Whilst apparently going steadily down to the grave, his symptoms at length became much relieved, and he took some encouragement from the state of his case. In reply to the inquiry of his friends, whether I had any hope of his recovery, I frankly said that I had not, and that from all I could see I supposed that the relief which he experienced was to last but a short time, and that he must die very soon. They urged me to tell him so, but I declined, for the reasons that I have stated above. The condition of comfort and relief lasted in this case, contrary to my expectation, for several weeks; and they were weeks of delightful intercourse, of affectionate counsel, and of triumphant faith and joy. And I have not a doubt that his life was thus happily prolonged in part by the cordial influence of the hope, that the remedies which relieved his distress might effect a cure.