1827.] 



Biographical Memoirs of Eminent Persons. 



557 



you, once more, most pressingly, to urge 

 your kind attention to my unhappy situation. 

 Alas! up to the present day, I see no hopes 

 of a termination to my dreadful malady ; on 

 the contrary, my sufferings, and with them 

 my cares, increase. On the 27th of Febru- 

 ary I was operated upon (tapped) for the 

 fourth time ; and perhxps the fates will that 

 I may expect to undergo this operation a 

 fifth lime, or even oftener. If this continues, 

 my illne.es will then last half the summer- 

 and in that case what is to become of me ? 

 Upon what am I to live until I regain my 

 lest strength, so as to enable me to earn my 

 subsistence with my pen ? But I will not 

 weary you with new complaints, but merely 

 refer to my letter of the 22d of February, 

 and entreat you to exert all your influence 

 to persuade the Philharmonic Society to carry 

 promptly into effect their former resolution 

 relative to the academy, for my advantage. 

 My strength does not permit me to say 

 more ; and I am so fully convinced of your 

 friendly sentiments towards me that I need 

 not fear being misunderstood. Accept the 

 assurance of the highest respect with which, 

 anxiously looking forward to your early re- 

 ply, I always am, dear Sir, your's devo- 

 tedly." 



Beethoven had received a regular classical 

 education; Homer and Plutarch were his 

 great favourites amongst the ancients ; and 

 of the native poets Schiller and Goethe (who 

 was his personal friend,) he preferred to all 

 others. For a considerable time he also 



studied more abstruse subjects, such as 

 Kant's Philosophy, (fee. 



We have seen a li.st of no fewer than 120 

 of Beethoven's performances, the greater part 

 of which are allowed to be productions of the 

 highest order. In the loftier strains of com- 

 position he was almost without a rival. His 

 overture to the " Men of Rome and Lens," 

 and his piano- forte concerto in C minor, 6 p. 

 37, would alone be sufficient to immortalise 

 him. In many of his orchestral symphonies, 

 overtures, quartettes for the violin, concertos, 

 trios, and sonatas for the piano-forte, he 

 may be ranked with Haydn and Mozart. 

 Of Handel and Mozart Beethoven was a 

 worshipping admirer. Of Handel he was 

 once heard to exclaim, " I would uncover my 

 head and kneel down on his tomb!" To 

 the works of modern composers he seems to 

 have paid but little attention ; when asked 

 about " Der Freischiitz," his answer was 

 " I believe one Weber has written it.'* Of 

 his own productions he thought his second 

 mass was the best. 



For many years Beethoven laboured under 

 the affliction of severe deafness ; latterly he 

 had a confirmed dropsy, which terminated in 

 his death on the 31st of March. 



In their neglect of living genius the feelings 

 of the Germans appear to assimilate too 

 closely with those of their brethren the Eng- 

 lish ; for, although Beethoven was allowed 

 to languish and expire in poverty, his remains 

 were honoured with a splendid and ostenta- 

 tious funeral. 



MONTHLY MEDICAL REPORT. 



Soon after the commencement of the present year, it was remarked that cases of ague 

 were more abundant than usual. During the last month this disease has become so 

 decidedly prevalent in London and its vicinity as to merit particular notice. In the days 

 of Sydenham that is, about one hundred and seventy years ago ague was one of the most 

 common complaints in the metropolis. Cromwell died of it; and a physician of the name 

 of Tabor, devoted himself, almost exclusively, to its treatment. Since that period, ague 

 has gradually diminished in frequency, and the happy change is doubtless to be attributed 

 to the incessant attention which is paid to the sewers and uuder-drainage of the town. 

 Every now and then, however, ague re-appears in London, as was strikingly manifested 

 during the years 1781 to 1785. A peculiar temperament of the atmosphere (the nature of 

 which, from its extreme subtlety, escapes detection) is the probable cause of this pheno- 

 menon. We may suppose it to operate, either by promoting the development of febrific 

 miasm?, or by facilitating their diffusion through the air, or by predisposing the human 

 system to imbibe them. Whichever of these opinions may be adopted, the fact is unde- 

 niable, that particular states of the atmospheredo concur with emanations from the earth, 

 in the production of intermittent fevers. 



During the present season, the central parts of the metropolis have not altogether 

 escaped ; but the disease has chiefly manifested itself in the outskirts of the town, as on the 

 banks of the Thames, and in some of the villages in Kent. Th reporter has seen some 

 cases from the neighbourhood of the Regent's Park. In its character and symptoms, 

 the ague of the present season has been decidedly inflammatory, as all vernal fevers may 

 naturally be expected to prove. It has yielded to the bark with sufficient readiness, but 

 in almost all cases, the reporter has found it necessary to premise two or three active 

 doses of aperient medicine, especially calomel and jalap. In one instance he drew blood 

 from the arm, during the hot stage, with great and well-marked benefit. Hepatic 

 derangements have frequently been noticed, in conjunction with the ague, and invariably 

 with the effect of interrupting the usual course of the disease, and of protracting its cure. 

 The reporter has not neglected this opportunity of determining, as far as his limited expe- 

 rience would allow, the efficacy of the new preparation of bark, the sulphate of quinine, 

 in aguish complaints. That it is a neat arid elegant medicine must be at once admitted, 

 and in mild cases it may be administered with sufficient confidence ; but the reporter is 

 strongly disposed to question its power of resisting the regular inroads of a fully formed 



