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[The second letter, signed Harriet F. Towne, is apparently from the mother, and is dated March 21, 1860.]
Dr. Quimby:
Thinking you would like to hear from Maria by this time, I hasten to inform you that she is in fine spirits, can have a little more light in the room; but cannot hold her eyes open any longer than when you were here. . . . She is all courage and walks a little every day, and enjoys her food very much. Maria wants to hear from you soon. Please write if that lady in Wayne walked last Monday, and if you come here often. Maria imagines you do.*
*The "lady in Wayne" was one whom Quimby treated absently while in Lancaster attending Miss Towne. Such cases were interesting to patients as well as to onlookers, because they gave evidence of the great healer's power to make himself felt at a distance, and this was a new phenomenon in those days.
[The third letter is from the father, under date of April 1, 1860:]
Dr. Quimby,
Dear Sir: Maria gains strength a little every day. She has gained in one week ending last Thursday two and a half pounds in weight. She walks across the room six or eight times in a day with a little help. Her appetite is good. Her eyes grow stronger, she can have considerable light in the room. . . . There are several here that are anxious for you to see them. One man that is very much troubled with the phthsic wanted me to ask if you had any control over that disease. . . .
[Then follows a letter from the patient herself who, after a visit to Dr. Quimby in Portland, writes concerning the one trouble now remaining, her eye-trouble, which she says is extremely obstinate. She finds that the eyes are better only when she is under Quimby's direct influence. Feeling entirely dependent upon her restorer for health and happiness, she is eager for more help from him. It was Quimby's endeavor to put his patients in possession of the healing principle so that they would not depend upon the "influence" they felt while sitting by him or receiving absent help; but
