with which the presence of strychnia could be proved by administering any suspected matter to young frogs, which would be affected by the five-thousandth part of a grain of strychnia. But he now began to succumb to the effects of his long-continued malady in the throat. Expectoration of blood became more frequent, difficulty of swallowing increased; at times he was near absolute starvation, and his sufferings were horrible, but his patience and resignation marvellous. After months of terrible illness, during which his cheerfulness never left him, he died on the 11th August 1857, of ulceration of the upper part of the gullet and windpipe. During his illness his mind was as active as ever, he wrote continually his new ideas, and worked out to fuller ends his former discoveries. Throughout he was especially bright and affectionate to all little children; the manner in which he entered into children’s delights was most exquisite to witness. His Christian faith was unclouded; as he said, religion was to him the principal thing. In the simplicity, beauty, and happiness of his character he resembled Sir Charles Bell, of whom he was the true successor. FOOTNOTES: [20] _Medical Times and Gazette_ August 29, 1857. [21] Memorials of Marshall Hall, by his widow, 1861. CHAPTER X. _SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE AND SIR WILLIAM LAWRENCE, TWO GREAT PRACTICAL SURGEONS._ The influence of heredity and of association and connexion with talented persons is well illustrated in the case of Sir Benjamin Brodie. His paternal grandfather, Alexander Brodie, was a native of Banffshire, who came to London as a humble adventurer and almost as a Jacobite refugee. He married a daughter of a physician named Shaw, of similar Jacobite family and connexions. Brodie became an army clothier, and one of his daughters, who married Dr. Denman, the eminent obstetric physician, was the mother of Lord Denman. Margaret and Sophia, the twin daughters of Dr. Denman, married—the former Sir Richard Croft, who attended the Princess Charlotte at her death in 1817, the latter Dr. Matthew Baillie, the eminent physician, and nephew of John Hunter. The army clothier’s wife was herself a woman of considerable abilities, and it was said that there was royal blood in the family. The father of Sir Benjamin was educated at Charterhouse and at Oxford. As a boy he was patronised by the first Lord Holland, and spent much time at Holland House. A warm attachment existed between them, in which Charles James Fox shared. When Lord Holland died in 1774, he directed by will that Mr. Brodie, who had taken holy orders, should have the next presentation to whichever of his livings first became vacant. This desire was soon fulfilled, and Winterslow in Wiltshire became the home of the Brodies. The Rev. Mr. Brodie married in 1775 a daughter of Mr. Collins, a banker at Salisbury; and of this marriage Benjamin Collins Brodie was the third son, having been born in 1783.