HENRY PICKERING BOWDITCH. 745 



terested, almost until the last, in plans he had outlined for the Medical 

 School. In spite of the growing physical weakness which must have 

 clouded for a time his energetic spirit during those years, Dr. Bow- 

 ditch's life as a whole must be regarded as essentially a happy life, 

 happy in durable achievements, happy in the affections of close friends, 

 and in the tender devotion of his family. When it became necessary 

 for him to face the inevitable, he accepted his fate with cheerful pa- 

 tience and with gentlest consideration for those who ministered to him. 

 Perhaps as the end approached he recalled the words which he wrote in 

 a memorial to his friend, Theodore Lyman, years before : — 



"I remember, Mr. President, when a young man, looking around 

 among the men of my generation and considering whose lot in life 

 seemed to me, on the whole, the most enviable. I came to the conclu- 

 sion that Theodore Lyman was, of all my acquaintances, the man for 

 whom the future seemed to hold out the brightest promise. 



" In vigorous health, with a personality — physical, mental, and moral 

 — which endeared him to all who came in contact with him, happily 

 married, with instincts and powers which led him to the highest callings, 

 to the service of his country in the field and in legislative halls, with 

 tastes for the study of the natural sciences and abundant means to 

 gratify them, there seemed to be nothing lacking to make his life an 

 ideally happy one. 



*' Then, when the shadow of a slow, insidious disease fell upon him 

 it seemed for a time as if his life were but to afford another illustration 

 of the old Greek saying that no man is to be j udged happy before his 

 death ; but when I saw how bravely he met the advances of his enemy, 

 and with what courageous cheerfulness he interested himself in the 

 pursuits of his friends and in the active life around him in which he 

 could no longer share, I could not help feeling that a happiness was re- 

 served for him higher than any of which the Greek philosopher had 

 dreamed or I, as a young man, had formed a conception — the happiness 

 of knowing that by the force of his example he had helped to raise 

 those who came under its influence to a higher and nobler life." 



W. B. Cannon. 



List of Publications by Dr. H. P. Bowditch. 



1871 Uber die Eigenthiimlichkeiten der Reizbarkeit, welche die 

 Muskelfasern des Herzens zeigen. Arb. a. d. physiol. Anst. 

 zu. Leipz., 1871, 139-176. Also: Ber. d. k. sachs. Gesellsch. 

 d. Wissensch. Math. phys. Kl, 1871 



