528 CONCLUSION. [i88i. 



" I happened to be out, but my butler, observing that Mr. 

 Darwin was ill, asked him to come in. He said he would 

 prefer going home, and although the butler urged him to 

 wait at least until a cab could be fetched, he said he would 

 rather not give so much trouble. For the same reason he 

 refused to allow the butler to accompany him. Accordingly 

 he watched him walking with difficulty towards the direction 

 in which cabs were to be met with, and saw that, when he 

 had got about three hundred yards from the house, he stag- 

 gered and caught hold of the park-railings as if to prevent 

 himself from falling. The butler therefore hastened to his 

 assistance, but after a few seconds saw him turn round with 

 the evident purpose of retracing his steps to my house. How- 

 ever, after he had returned part of the way he seems to have 

 felt better, for he again changed his mind, and proceeded to 

 find a cab." 



During the last week of February and in the beginning of 

 March, attacks of pain in the region of the heart, with irre- 

 gularity of the pulse, became frequent, coming on indeed 

 nearly every afternoon. A seizure of this sort occurred about 

 March 7, when he was walking alone at a short distance from 

 the house ; he got home with difficulty, and this was the last 

 time that he was able to reach his favourite ' Sand-walk.' 

 Shortly after this, his illness became obviously more serious 

 and alarming, and he was seen by Sir Andrew Clark, whose 

 treatment was continued by Dr. Norman Moore, of St. Bar- 

 tholomew's Hospital, and Mr. Alfrey, of St. Mary Cray. He 

 suffered from distressing sensations of exhaustion and faint- 

 ness, and seemed to recognise with deep depression the fact 

 that his working days were over. He gradually recovered 

 from this condition, and became more cheerful and hopeful, 

 as is shown in the following letter to Mr. Huxley, who was 

 anxious that my father should have closer medical super- 

 vision than the existing arrangements allowed : 



