I might, perhaps, have been warned by certain palpable danger signs, but I have been too anxious to find the cure. I cared not at all how mistaken their pathology; for I could not believe that men of such standing could be equally mistaken as to the success or failure of what went on under their very eyes. And right here let me set down what has impressed me as inexcusable neglect of these cases by most of these self same “big” men of the medical profession. One after another I have found physicians who receive and undertake to treat cases of addiction brought to them by the lure of high professional reputation and medical articles in which is painted a glowing picture of some new and wonderful cure. And, one after another, I have found these men of high professional standing giving to their cases not even enough time and attention to enable them to form an intelligent opinion as to their condition and progress, much less what would be needed for the proper study and treatment of one of the most difficult and distressing ailments which afflict mankind. Moreover, comparing notes with medical men who have been fellow patients under similar circumstances (many of them, I may remark, of the highest type, as men and as physicians), there has been among us a universal sense of shame and indignation that men with such reputation and standing should lay the medical profession open to the justly founded criticism of extortion and neglect of duty, frequently of seemingly rank commercialism, even including the splitting of fees with quacks and charlatans of the worst sort. In saying that I have found no cure, I do not mean that I have never succeeded in getting to the point where I could get along for shorter or longer periods without the drug. Many times I have succeeded by myself in gradually reducing the dose to a minimum and then making the final plunge and taking none at all for some time. What this has meant I will not undertake to describe. Several times I have managed to keep from using the drug for a while after taking treatment of one kind or another. But have I been cured? Let no one thoughtlessly reply that the very fact of my having on each of these occasions reached a point where, according to my own statement, I was able to live without the drug, constitutes proof that I was cured, or that when I started to use it again I was merely yielding weakly.