‘The effect produced upon his lecturing was remarkable. Debility of body as well as uneasiness of mind incapacitated him. His spirited and, at the same time modest, method of delivery was changed into one languid and hesitating. He would have resigned in the middle of his course, and on one occasion at least Count Rumford, at a few hours’ notice, found a substitute to lecture for him.’ This was on the evening of March 2, when with the shortest possible notice Count Rumford got Dr. Crichton to give the lecture on account of the illness of Dr. Garnett. He again wrote to the managers on May 11, and on the 25th a special meeting of the managers was held, and it was resolved that ‘the managers, taking into consideration the two applications of Dr. Garnett, are unanimously of opinion that they cannot agree to make any alteration in his present salary and situation.’ On June 1 Davy was appointed Lecturer on Chemistry. On June 15 it was resolved by the managers unanimously that Dr. Garnett’s resignation should be accepted, that his salary up to the end of the year should be paid to him by the Committee of Expenditure, and that his letter of resignation should be preserved. Unfortunately this letter does not exist now. ‘Dr. Garnett had long determined to apply himself to medical practice, and at the same time to give private lectures, to secure that income of which he seemed fated to be disappointed.’ In the summer of 1801 he removed to Great Marlborough Street, and brought his family to London, and he sought for practice as a physician. He built a lecture room; he made arrangements for editing the ‘Annals of Philosophy, Natural History, Chemistry, Literature, Agriculture, and Fine Arts’ for the year 1800, intending to continue it yearly; and he prepared himself to give not less than eight courses of lectures during the winter. At his own house he gave two courses on Chemistry, one on Mineralogy, one on Botany, two on Experimental Philosophy, and a private course on this subject also; he gave a course on Botany at Brompton, and in a room at Tom’s Coffee House, in the City, a course of popular lectures on Zoonomia, or the Laws of Animal Life in Health and Disease. This was for the convenience of medical students and others in that part of the town. A return of ill health prevented him from completing some of these courses, but he used every means to increase his private practice. In May 1802 he was elected physician to the Marylebone Dispensary, which he thought would bring the success which he seemed never able to obtain. Very weak in body and not exempt from anxiety of mind, he began the hard work of his Dispensary. He caught typhus fever from one of the patients in June, and died on the 28th of that month. He left his children penniless.