These bad habits of illness engender an unwillingness to let go of them.

They seem so real.

"I do not want to suffer like this," I hear an invalid say; "if it were merely a habit don't you think I would throw it off in a minute ?" I knew a young physician who had made somewhat of a local reputation in the care of nerves, and a man living in a far-distant country, who had been for some time a chronic invalid, happened by accident to hear of him.

My friend was surprised to receive a letter from this man, offering to pay him the full amount of all fees he would earn in one month and as much more as he might ask if he would spend that time in the house with him and attempt his cure.
Always interested in new phases of nerves, and having no serious case on hand himself at the time, he assented and went with great interest on this long journey to, as he hoped, cure one man.

When he arrived he found his patient most charming.