HENRY INGERSOLL BOWDITCH. 319 



in wliich he was soon regarded as the leading specialist in New 

 England, with only one rival in this country, Dr. Austin Flint of 

 New York. His consultations, however, to a great extent covered 

 the whole range of internal medicine. 



In 1879, when seventy-one years old, he fell in stepping from a 

 horse car to an icy street and separated the tendon from the patella. 

 The injury, the shock, and the six weeks of enforced rest in bed in 

 a constrained position were a terrible strain, the effects of which so 

 incessantly active and sensitive a temperament as his could not but 

 feel. He was slow in regaining his old vigor, and thereafter always 

 had a slight physical disability of gait which gave him an appearance 

 of infirmity of age that was not altogether real, and which the alert- 

 ness of his mind quickly disproved. In the mean time epileptiform 

 attacks, naturally of a distressing nature, which seemed to be the 

 result of this fall, appeared and recurred, sometimes at such long 

 intervals that it was thought they had ceased, and again with dis- 

 couraging frequency. Few even of those who knew him well can 

 conceive how great this trial was, or what fortitude he showed in 

 meeting it. All the faith and hope and strength and courage in his 

 nature came out only the stronger. As he became more calmly 

 contemplative, there were fewer of his vigoi'ous explosions of feeling 

 and splendid outbursts of impulsive enthusiasm, while the interests of 

 his life remained as active as ever. The more frequent vacations 

 which he found that he needed gave him his long-coveted leisure to 

 indulge his love of nature and of reading, and especially of music, of 

 which he was devotedly fond all through his life, and to be more 

 with his family. He continued his assiduous attendance at medical 

 society meetings until the impaired hearing of eighty years com- 

 pelled him reluctantly to give them up, and still later he occasionally 

 saw patients in consultation. It has been suggested that it may 

 have been because he was so busy that he never used tobacco, but 

 it is more consistent with his character that he should have abstained 

 from its use for the same reason that he took wine only with the 

 greatest moderation. 



After he had become of the first eminence in his branch of the 

 medical profession, and his reputation had extended throughout this 

 country and Europe, he still kept in close touch, through the Thurs- 

 day Club and constant attendance on scientific and medical society 

 meetings, with the spirit of progress in all branches of knowledge. 

 Whatever interested humanity interested him. He gave his assist- 

 ance freely to all movements to elevate mankind, regardless of race 



