But these were only a few of the public objects to which Erasmus Wilson devoted his wealth, which had been vastly increased by singularly skilful investments in gas and railway companies’ shares. He restored Swanscombe Church, near his birthplace, in 1873. He founded, at a cost of £2500, a scholarship at the Royal College of Music, besides contributing considerably to its general funds. He was a large subscriber to the Royal Medical Benevolent College at Epsom, and built at his own cost a house for the head-master; further, he built at a cost of £30,000 a new wing and chapel for the Sea-Bathing Infirmary at Margate, in which skin diseases are largely treated. He was a strong Freemason, and contributed liberally to various Masonic charities. In recognition of his many public benefactions he was knighted in 1881. “From his earliest life,” says the _British Medical Journal_ (August 16, 1884), “he was characterised particularly by his kindliness and gentleness of manner, which made him many friends; indeed, to know him was to love him. His generosity to poor patients who came to consult him was very great, not only prescribing for them gratis, but supplying the means for carrying out the treatment, and that not only after he became wealthy, but even at a time when he could ill afford to be generous. The amount of good he did privately will probably never be known, as he was one of whom it may truly be said, that he never let his left hand know what his right hand did—so unostentatious was he in regard to his charity.” Sir Erasmus Wilson had been in ill-health for two years before his death, and for a year was quite blind, yet never lost cheerfulness. On July 23, 1884, he was at the consecration of St. Saviour’s Church at Westgate on Sea, of which he had laid the foundation-stone a year before. Within three days he became seriously ill, and died on August 7th. He had married in 1841 a Miss Doherty, who survived him. He left no family, and the bulk of his property, something like £180,000, reverts on Lady Wilson’s death to the College of Surgeons, without any restriction as to the disposal of the fund. Other legacies of £5000 each he bequeathed to the Sea-Bathing Infirmary at Margate, the Medical Benevolent College, and the Society for the Relief of the Widows and Orphans of Medical Men. Such bequests alone would place a man among great public benefactors. Wilson had not waited till death came before he became beneficent, and if his gifts are used in the spirit in which he gave them, he will rank with John Hunter as to the material if not the intellectual legacy he has bequeathed to mankind. * * * * *