120 LIFE OF GEORGE WILSON. CHAP. VT. 



think I shall make progress now day by day. Being 

 forbidden to walk much on pavements, owing to the re- 

 flection from the hot stones, you must not look for city 

 news, or think I am ill because I have not visited friends 

 there." 



Before leaving London, however, he can say, " The sun 

 shines on me with a brightness, and the wind blows on me 

 with a balminess, which they seem to have lost through this 

 gloomy summer. The weather here has been of the finest ; 

 clear, unbroken sunshine, for the last fortnight. But yester- 

 day a thunderstorm brought deluges of rain, and to-day we 

 have one evendown pour, with the temperature much 

 lowered. I hold it one of the surest symptoms of improve- 

 ment, that I have lost that sensitiveness to changes in 

 weather, which made me shiver in July, and cower by my 

 laboratory fire. You must not expect to find me fattened 

 up, or very much stronger than when I left, but more active 

 and more healthy I certainly am." 



It was now within three weeks of the winter session of 

 1841-42, which promised to begin in greater physical 

 strength than the preceding one. How this hope was again 

 snatched away he tells Daniel : 



"November 6, 1841. 



" MY DEAR BROTHER, You will be glad, I am sure, to 

 receive a letter in my handwriting ; the best evidence that 

 I can send you that I am better. I had ar very severe 

 attack of illness, much worse than in London, and the 

 treatment was proportionally rigorous. What was most 

 annoying in the whole matter was, that a week before I 

 took to bed, I showed my eye to Dr. R., the oculist, and 

 requested his advice \ by some strange mistake he thought 

 I complained of my eyelid, and said there was nothing the 



