This time I selected a well-known specialist in the Middle West. I bared my entire life to his scrutiny, placing myself absolutely in his hands. Forty-eight hours as an inmate of the institution convinced me that I had made an unfortunate selection; but from a sense of false pride at being a “quitter” and a belief in my own powers I remained. The methods were absolutely crude and unscientific, the food poor and unsuitable, and the entire environment unfitted to the well being of such patients as I was. At the end of seven weeks I was visited by the one most interested in me, who took me from my bed, from which I could not have arisen without assistance, and brought me East. It is true that the amount of the drug that I had been taking had been reduced to a very small amount, but at the expense of a badly shattered nervous system which required many months to regain even its partial normal status. This fall I am in New York and have placed myself under the care of a physician who, while not claiming to be a specialist has, in my opinion and the opinion of many others, the clearest conception of the meaning of drug addiction and its pathology. His opportunities for the study of these cases have been most unusual. His methods are both humane and scientific. Through him I have the hope that should time be allowed me I shall when I am summoned to the great unknown, be freed from the chains that so long oppressed but failed in the end to overwhelm me and compass my ruin. * * * * * DRUG ADDICTION FROM THE VIEWPOINT OF AN AFFLICTED PHYSICIAN BY A PROMINENT MEDICAL MAN, FORMERLY A HEALTH OFFICIAL OF AN AMERICAN CITY Maximum efficiency of every individual member of this nation is necessary today as never before in its history. Hence any condition responsible for lessened efficiency on the part of thousands of citizens is a thing to be seriously considered, especially when among these are to be found a large proportion of men and women who would otherwise be useful workers in every important field of activity. Addiction to narcotic drugs is today depriving the country, either wholly or partially, of the services of thousands of individuals who but for this handicap would be entirely fit (many of them preeminently so) for work of the utmost importance. This is a problem of the first magnitude and one which will have to be solved largely by the medical profession. But the medical profession as a whole is utterly lacking at the present time in such knowledge of addiction as is needed to enable them to attack the problem. For these reasons I feel it to be my duty to do my “bit” as a medical man, to put on record some of the lessons which, from years of personal experience, I have learned as to addiction itself, and the methods of treatment with which I have had experience in my efforts to be cured.