The harass of London life by this time commenced to tell on Dr. Snow. He had suffered a few years previously from threatened symptoms of phthisis pulmonalis, but took plenty of fresh air, and recovered. He again became slowly unhinged for work, and in the summer of 1845, was attacked with acute and alarming symptoms of renal disorder. His friend and neighbour, Mr. Peter Marshall, then of Greek Street, now of Bedford Square, gave him his able assistance, and the advice of Dr. Prout, and, I believe, of Dr. Bright, was obtained. He was induced by their general opinion to change his mode of living, and even to take wine in small quantities. In the autumn of 1845, he paid a visit to his friend and old colleague, Mr. Joshua Parsons, at Beckington, with whom he stayed a fortnight, enjoying himself very much. The friends resumed their old controversies, and the Doctor admitted that he had been obliged to relinquish his vegetable diet in favour of a mixed regimen. He improved greatly, says Mr. Parsons, during his stay; but it was obvious that London life and hard study had hold of him. From Beckington he went to the Isle of Wight, but soon returned to London and to his work. A little after this, he was elected Lecturer on Forensic Medicine at the Aldersgate School of Medicine, and held the appointment till the establishment dissolved in 1849. I have often heard from him, in his quiet droll way, many laughable stories in relation to his duties in the forensic chair. When he left off teaching, he found that, in addition to the labour implied and the cost of experiments, he had to pay, with the rest of his colleagues, a ransom for his release. There is no night without its morning. The eventful medical year of 1846 proved the turn of tide season with our struggling Esculapian. In this year, the news came over from America that operations could be performed without pain under the influence of sulphuric ether. The fact was just such an one as would at once attract the earnest attention of Dr. Snow. It was a physiological, as well as a practical fact. It was rational in its meaning, and marvellously humane in its application. The question once before him, was in a scientific sense his own. His previous experimental studies on respiration and asphyxia had prepared him for this new inquiry. He lost no time, therefore, in investigating the new fact; he took it up for its own sake, however, not from any thought, at the time, of a harvest of gold.