346 THE EULOGY OF RICHARD JEFFERIES. 



and I broke down utterly, and could only lie 

 on the sofa in a fainting condition. In a few 

 days I became so helpless and weak that there 

 appeared little chance of my living. Someone 

 suggested that Dr. Kidd should be sent for. 

 He came on Sunday morning, and found me 

 nearly ended. I was fainting during the 

 examination. He discovered that it was 

 ulceration of the intestines. You know 

 how painful an ulcer is anywhere say on 

 your lip now for over two years this ulcera- 

 tion had been burning its way in the intes- 

 tines. 



" He put me on milk diet, malt bread, malt 

 extract, malted food, meat shredded and 

 pounded in a mortar, raw beef, and so on. 

 In forty- eight hours the pain was better. For 

 three weeks I improved and hoped. I think 

 that had the diet been then altered to the 

 ordinary food, I might have made a recovery ; 

 instead of which it was kept up for nine weeks, 

 at the end of which I had lost all the improve- 

 ment, and was so weak that I could but just 

 crawl up and down stairs. I attribute my 

 subsequent exhaustion to the continued use 



