Page:Confessions of an English opium-eater (IA confessionsofeng00dequrich).pdf/202

 arrived. On that day I began my experiment, having previously settled in my own mind that I would not flinch, but would "stand up to the scratch"—under any possible "punishment." I must premise that about 170 or 180 drops had been my ordinary allowance for many months; occasionally I had run up as high as 500; and once nearly to 700; in repeated preludes to my final experiment I had also gone as low as 100 drops; but had found it impossible to stand it beyond the 4th day—which, by the way, I have always found more difficult to get over than, any of the preceding three. I went off under easy sail—130 drops a day for 3 days: on the 4th I plunged at once to 80: the misery which I now suffered "took the conceit" out of me at once: and for about a month I continued off and on about this mark: then I sunk to 60: and the next day to none at all. This was the first day for nearly ten years that I had existed without opium. I persevered in my abstinence for 90 hours; i.e. upwards of half a week. Then I took ask me not how much: say, ye severest, what