368 Edward Livingston Youmans. 



brother, coming down from the West, dropped in, and in the 

 excitement I became exhausted. 



The pleuro-pneumonia came on again in an exaggerated 

 form, and I had a hard time with it. I am again much bet- 

 ter, but the left lung is in a bad way, and, I fear, threatens 

 long to remain so ; but I am free of pain, have a ^ood ap- 

 petite, am gaining strength, and begin to walk around the 

 room, though with a very tottering step. I was terribly 

 reduced, the first month living chiefly upon brandy. But 

 I am still forbidden to sit up more than half an hour at a 

 time, or to leave the room, or to see anybody, or to talk 

 much, or do anything. But I am hoping that with this 

 abundant experience of the ease of relapse I may be able 

 to guard myself better, and hope to get out of this tire- 

 some place before long. Yet the one mitigating thing is 

 that the weather for the last three months has been terrible, 

 and is still sour cold. Of course, in a business way, the 

 last three months have been a blank. 



May <5, 1881. 

 I am only now beginning to understand how fast and 

 how far I went down during the first month of my sickness. 

 The recovery is very slow and tedious. I can mark a cer- 

 tain small improvement with each passing week, but I fear 

 it will be a good while yet before I can get out of the house. 

 I am, however, free from pain, have strength to sit up most 

 of the time, and to walk about some, though it seems, 

 whenever I rise, that I weigh a ton. I am able to read 

 considerably and to write some, and this makes life com- 

 fortable. I have just helped Jay through his July Monthly, 

 and have quite enjoyed it. I received the proof of your 

 forthcoming article, and Jay wanted me to write something 

 about it ; but it is too long and close for me to deal with it 

 now, with but five hours allowed to do it. When I get a 

 little stronger I am going over the whole series carefully, 

 that I may be qualified to say something about it. I re- 



