and had been placed in another, when for the first time in six weeks I saw my conservator, did he learn of the treatment to which I had been subjected.  From his office in New Haven he had telephoned several times to the assistant physician and inquired about my condition.  Though Jekyll-Hyde did tell him that I was highly excited and difficult to control, he did not even hint that I was being subjected to any unusual restraint.  Doctor Jekyll deceived everyone, and—­as things turned out—­deceived himself; for had he realized then that I should one day be able to do what I have since done, his brutality would surely have been held in check by his discretion.

How helpless, how at the mercy of his keepers, a patient may be is further illustrated by the conduct of this same man.  Once, during the third week of my nights in a strait-jacket, I refused to take certain medicine which an attendant offered me.  For some time I had been regularly taking this innocuous concoction without protest; but I now decided that, as the attendant refused most of my requests, I should no longer comply with all of his.  He did not argue the point with me.  He simply reported my refusal to Doctor Jekyll.  A few minutes later Doctor Jekyll—­or rather Mr. Hyde—­accompanied by three attendants, entered the padded cell.  I was robed for the night—­in a strait-jacket.  Mr. Hyde held in his hand a rubber tube.  An attendant stood near with the medicine.  For over two years, the common threat had been made that the “tube” would be resorted to if I refused medicine or food.  I had begun to look upon it as a myth; but its presence in the hands of an oppressor now convinced me of its reality.  I saw that the doctor and his bravos meant business; and as I had already endured torture enough, I determined to make every concession this time and escape what seemed to be in store for me.

“What are you going to do with that?” I asked, eyeing the tube.

“The attendant says you refuse to take your medicine.  We are going to make you take it.”

“I’ll take your old medicine,” was my reply.

“You have had your chance.”

“All right,” I said.  “Put that medicine into me any way you think best.  But the time will come when you’ll wish you hadn’t.  When that time does come it won’t be easy to prove that you had the right to force a patient to take medicine he had offered to take.  I know something about the ethics of your profession.  You have no right to do anything to a patient except what’s good for him.  You know that.  All you are trying to do is to punish me, and I give you fair warning I’m going to camp on your trail till you are not only discharged from this institution, but expelled from the State Medical Society as well.  You are a disgrace to your profession, and that society will attend to your case fast enough when certain members of it, who are friends of mine, hear about this.  Furthermore, I shall report your conduct to the Governor of the State.  He can take some action even if this is not a state institution.  Now, damn you, do your worst!”