i(>3 Biographical Account of [March, 



ceding part of the spring and summer, intimated to me (and 

 doubtless to others of liis friends) his impressions on this head. In 

 what precise condition of his system, whether physical or intellec- 

 tual, these impressions were founded, I have only been able to form 

 a distant and unsatisfactory conjecture. 



" A few days after this interview, viz. on the 22d of June, I 

 was sent for to visit Mr. Rittenhouse. I found him in his garden, 

 where he loved to walk, and soon learned that he laboured under a 

 severe attack of cholera, accompanied, however, with more fever 

 than we generally find with this disease ; and with a great increase 

 of that violent pain and sense of oppression at the region of his 

 stomach, to which he had been subject for at least thirty years. 

 Notwithstanding his age, the debility of his system, and the unfa- 

 vourable state of the season, I ventured to flatter myself that the 

 attack would not prove mortal. On the following day, however, 

 finding him no better, but rather worse, I requested permission to 

 call in the aid of another physician ; and having mentioned the 

 name of Dr. Adam Kuhn, that Gentleman accordingly visited our 

 friend in company with me during the remainder of his illness. 



" His febrile symptoms being very urgent, it was thought neces- 

 sary to bleed our patient ; and notwithstanding his great and 

 habitual repugnance to the practice on former occasions, he now 

 readily consented to the operation, on condition that I should per- 

 form it myself. The blood which was drawn exhibited a pretty 

 strong inflammatory crust, and the operation seemed to give him a 

 temporary relief from his pain. Soon after this his strength gra- 

 dually declined ; and on the third day of his illness it was but too 

 obvious that our illustrious relative was soon to be separated from 

 his friends. He expired without a struggle, and in the calmest 

 manner, ten minutes before two o'clock on the morning of Sunday 

 the 26th, in the presence of his youngest daughter, Mrs. Waters, 

 and myself. His excellent wife, who had ever been assiduous in 

 her attentions on her husband, both in sickness and in health, had 

 retired from his chamber about two hours before, unable to support 

 the awful scene of expiring genius and virtue. 



" There can be no doubt, I think, that Mr. Rittenhouse, from 

 the first invasion of his disease, or at least from the day when he 

 was confined to his bed or room, entertained but little hopes of his 

 recovery. He signed his will in my presence. He discovered no 

 more solicitude about his situation than it is decorous and proper in 

 every good or great man to feel when in a similar situation. During 

 the greater part of his illness he manifested the most happy tempe- 

 rament of mind : and it was only in the last hour or two of his life 

 that his powerful intellects were disturbed by a mild delirium. 

 About eight hours before he died, the pain in the region of his 

 stomach being unusually severe, a poultice composed of meal and 

 laudanum was applied to the part. In less than two hours after the 

 application I called to see him, and upon asking him if he did not 

 feel easier, he calmly answered in these memorable words, which it 



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