1 82 EVOLUTION, OLD AND NEW. 



and sultry. The noon-tide meal had been made, and 

 the glass had gone gaily round. It was one of those 

 few instances in which the medical votary of the Naiads 

 transgressed his general and strict sobriety," in which, 

 in fact, lie may be said to have remembered himself. 



" If not absolutely intoxicated, his spirits were in a 

 high state of vinous exhilaration. On the boat ap- 

 proaching Nottingham, within the distance of a few 

 fields, he surprised his companions by stepping, without 

 any previous notice, from the boat into the middle of 

 the river, and swimming to shore. They saw him get 

 upon the bank, and walk coolly over the meadows 

 towards the town : they called to him in vain, but he 

 did not once turn his head. 



" Anxious lest he should take a dangerous cold by 

 remaining in his wet clothes, and uncertain whether or 

 not he intended to desert the party, they rowed in- 

 stantly to the town at which they had not designed to 

 have touched, and went in search of their river-god. 



" In passing through the market-place they saw him 

 standing upon a tub, encircled by a crowd of people, 

 and resisting the entreaties of an apothecary of the 

 place, one of his old acquaintances, who was importuning 

 him to his house, and to accept other raiments till his 

 own could be dried. 



" The party on pressing through the crowd were 

 surprised to hear him speaking without any degree of 

 his usual stammer : * Have I not told you, my friend, 

 that I had drank a considerable quantity of wine before 

 I committed myself to the river. You know my general 

 sobriety, and as a professional man you ouglit to know 



