His health had long been indifferent; he had suffered from hæmatemesis several times in the last few years, for which Dr. Budd had attended him, and he had his own forebodings that his life was not of the longest. In the month of December 1857 he was suddenly seized one evening with vertigo and sickness, which compelled him to keep the recumbent position for more than twenty-four hours. At the end of this time he felt better, and went about his usual avocations. He had no convulsions at this time, nor did he lose his consciousness. After this attack, he complained on many different occasions, both to his housekeeper and to several of his medical friends, of numbness in his extremities. Some of these to whom he mentioned this circumstance, do not recollect whether this symptom was greater on one side of the body than on the other; while others distinctly state that it was referred to the left side only. His housekeeper was certain that he never complained of this numbness before the attack in December; and even afterwards, it would appear to have been only an occasional symptom. For six weeks before his final seizure he had made no mention of it. About three weeks before his last attack, he had complained, for some days, of a severe pain in the back of his head, which he himself considered neuralgic, and for which he treated himself. This pain quite left him, and for about a fortnight he had been enjoying excellent health. On the evening of Tuesday, June the 8th, 1858, he attended a meeting of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society. On the following evening there was a meeting of a private society for the study of chest diseases, held at Dr. Quain’s. The subject discussed was the cause of the first sound of the heart. On this, the last occasion of the kind at which he was present, he was in unusual spirits, and looked exceedingly well. He entered into the debate with great earnestness, agreed to form one of a committee to inquire into the cause of the first sound by experiment, and left his friends with enthusiastic expression as to the success of the proposed undertaking. We exchanged our last farewells that night.