156 REMINISCENCES OF 



Street, were so far completed as to be used by the 

 British Association for the Advancement of Science 

 for their Reception-rooms. 



Soon afterwards the buildings were filled with 

 cases for the reception of specimens. Here I ob- 

 tained two good rooms in which to lay the founda- 

 tion of a botanical museum. The fine herbarium of 

 European plants, collected by the late H. C. Watson, 

 had already been placed at my disposal by Sir Joseph 

 Hooker, and is now preserved in the museum. 



I have referred to the temporary cessation of my 

 medical labours ; these, after being suspended 

 fifteen months by illness, were actively resumed. 

 Excepting some pamphlets in connection with my 

 aural studies, I made no pretensions to becoming a 

 medical author, but one class of cases did specially 

 interest me. I had not unfrequently witnessed 

 severe attacks of convulsions in infants only a few 

 weeks old, and in 1855 I had charge of a very 

 bad case of this kind in Stdckport, near Man- 

 chester. The severity of the convulsions made me 

 confident that the end must be almost immediate 

 unless prompt relief was obtained. Judging that 

 mischief was due to some internal irritant which 

 the child's nervous system was unable to bear, 

 I determined to try how far the inhalation of 

 chloroform could be carried in the case of so young 

 a child. Carefully attending to the necessary supply 

 of air, I administered the chloroform on the folds of 

 a fine cambric handkerchief, held at some distance 



