16 Biographical Memoir of the late Friedrich Hoffmann, 



and depressed by this convincing proof of the diminution of* 

 his bodily strength. After this last effort, his vigour decreased 

 with perceptibly greater rapidity. A hoarseness, which had al- 

 ready been apparent in winter, was now aggravated ; and, with 

 the bitterness of disappointed hopes, he himself confessed the 

 urgent necessity of hastening to an end his summer lectures, of 

 renouncing his proposed expedition, and of betaking himself to 

 a watering-place ; and, for this purpose, Ems was selected by 

 his medical friends. The autumnal weather was no longer fa- 

 vourable for the baths ; and, indeed, the internal disease had 

 by that time advanced too far to yield to such treatment. 

 Much reduced in strength, and evidently in worse health than 

 when he left Berlin, he returned thither. He still cherished 

 the belief that repose, a carefully regulated diet, and the re- 

 fraining from exertion of mind, would reinstate his strength ; 

 and this belief did not forsake him even when he became 

 daily weaker, was confined to his room, was compelled to have 

 recourse to the constant use of a sofa, and finally became un- 

 able to quit his bed. He regarded these signs of a gradual, 

 but steadily approaching dissolution, as only the consequence 

 of the unfavourable season ; and he was already forming a plan 

 of waiting for the return of his strength, with the better weather, 

 in retired summer quarters ; and of occupying his leisure time 

 in preparing the account of his Italian journey. 



Since the middle of the summer of 1835, Hoffmann''s friends 

 had not been able to conceal from themselves the critical state 

 of his health ; their hopes, that his vigorous mind might still 

 succeed in supporting his body, diminished every day, and by 

 the new year of 1836, they had entirely given up all belief in 

 his recovery. His illness excited a widely extended sympathy, 

 even in the very highest circles of society. His mind remained 

 serene and unclouded, even when his voice had become hardly 

 intelligible. He expired on the evening of the 6th February 

 1836, in the arms of his younger and beloved brother, who had 

 not left him for three weeks. The opening of his body proved 

 how strong the frame must have been which was so late of 

 yielding to a complete destruction of the most important inter- 

 nal organs. A numerous attendance of distinguished indivi- 

 duals and mourning students accompanied his corpse, on the 



