44 Life and Character of Nathaniel Bowditch. 
The disease of which Dr. Bowditch died was found, by a post 
mortem examination, to be a schirrus in the stomach, a disease 
_ of the same type with that which caused the death of Napoleon 
Buonaparte. For four weeks previous to his death, he could take 
no solid food, and hardly swallowed any liquid. He suffered, 
however, but little from hunger, but constantly from thirst ; and 
the only relief or refreshment he could find, was in frequen 
moistening his lips and mouth with cold water. His frame was 
consequently exceedingly attenuated, and his flesh wasted away. 
At intervals his sufferings were so intense, that, as he said, the | 
body at times triumphed over the spirit; but it was only for a 
moment; and the spirit resumed La orc = retained its natural 
and. lsgilivmnte sovereignty. 
He was buried, as he had lived, privately: and without parade 
or show, on the quiet morning of the Lord’s day.* His funeral 
was Sitended only by his family and two others; yet, in the per- 
son of the Chief Magistrate, I fancied I saw the Spirit of the 
Commonwealth doing homage to the talents and virtues of her 
illustrious son. As the hearse passed along through the silent 
streets, bearing that precious dust to its last resting-place, the 
snow-flakes fell upon it, the fit emblems of his purity and worth. 
And many a wet eye, in the city of his adoption, and in the place 
of his. nativity, and Ree wept for him, and many a heart 
blessed his memory, and mourned that a friend, and a benefac- 
tor, and a good man, had departed. 
He has built his own monument, more enduring than marble ; 
and in his splendid scientific name, and in his noble character, 
has bequeathed to his country the richest legacy. The sailor’ 
traverses the sea more safely by means of his labors, and the wid- 
ow’s and the orphan’s treasure is more securely guarded, in con- 
sequence of his care. He was the Great Pilot who steered all 
our ships over the ocean; and, though dead, he yet liveth, -and 
speaketh, and acteth, in the recorded wisdom of his invaluable 
book. The world has been the wiser and the happier that he 
has lived in it. 
- He has left an example full of instruction and encouragement 
to the young, and especially to those among them who are strug- 
ee -saiad and difficulties. He has shown them that that 
‘anus sine imaginibus et pom, por lade ae memoriam viru eu 
lebre fait" Pacibas, Ann. Lib. TL. 73. _- 
