CHARACTERS. 



485 



disliking to undergo the usu;il 

 surgical operation for that com- 

 plaint, his ingenuity suggested to 

 him a method of reducing the 

 stone, so curious in itself, and so 

 difficult in its execution, that we 

 should have douljted the fact, 

 were it not attested by the most 

 positive evidence of several gen- 

 tlemen of the first respectability. 

 He took a very tine stout wire of 

 about a foot long, one end of 

 which he cut in the manner of a 

 file. The wire thus prepared he 

 introduced by a catheter, through 

 the luethra, into the bottom of 

 the bladder, where the stone was 

 seated. When he found the wire 

 struck the stone, he gently work- 

 ed the wire up and down, so as to 

 give it the effect of a file ; and 

 this he continued to do for four 

 or five minutes at a time, until 

 the pain which the operation of 

 the wire produced, was so ex- 

 cruciating, that it obliged hnn to 

 withdraw it. But finding small 

 particles of the stone discharged 

 along with the urine after the 

 operation, he repeated it in the 

 same manner from time to time, 

 till, in the course of twelve 

 months, he succeeded in com- 

 pletely reducing the stone. 



This circumstance exhibits a 

 curious and ren.arkable trait of 

 the eccentricity of his character. 

 The contrivance was in itself in- 

 genious, but his patience and )jer- 

 severance in carrying it into efl'ect, 

 are so very extraordinary, tiiat 

 we apjirehend theie are few men, 

 who, in a similar situation, would 

 not rather endure the complaint 

 than liavc recourse to the remedy. 



Some years after the operation, 

 gravelly concretions began again 



to form in his bladder ; and as he 

 did not choose to try the wire a 

 second time, these continued to 

 increase until the end of the year 

 ISOO, when they occasioned his 

 death. 



Though he lived so long among 

 the English, he acquired but an 

 imperfect knowledge of our lan- 

 guage ; notwithstanding this lie 

 chose to write his will in En- 

 glish, which is altogether a very 

 singular production. It is too 

 long for insertion, but the follow- 

 ing are its principal bequests. — 

 The amount of his fortune was 

 thirty-three lacs of rupees, or 

 330,0001. sterling. To his rela- 

 tions at Lyons, he bequeatlied 

 25,0001. as we have already no- 

 ticed ; and he left the same sum 

 to the municipality of that city, 

 for the purpose of ajipropiiating 

 it to the benefit of the poor within 

 their juiisdiction, in whatever 

 manner they should think fit. 

 For the same purpose he be- 

 queathed 25,0001. to the city of 

 Calcutta, and the like sum to 

 Lucknow. To the church at 

 Chandernagore, in Bengal, he be- 

 qiieathed 15,0001. as a fund, the 

 interest of vvhich is to be appro- 

 priated to the support of the es- 

 tablishment ; and the like sum to 

 be laid out in the same manner, 

 for the benefit of tlie llomish 

 Chapel at Calcutta. He also left 

 15,000l. to endow an alms-licuse 

 for poor children at Lucknow. 

 The remainder of his fortune 

 (nearly one half) he left in lega- 

 cies to the women of his zenanah, 

 and his principal servants. The 

 will concludes v\ith a curious ex- 

 position of the principles by which 

 he regulated his conduct through 



life. 



