NEBRASKA. 



651 



Calcutta. Later he was placed on the medical 

 staff of the army of Burmah, where he studied 

 the oHinuto and diseases of that country, on 

 which ho wrote a valuable treatise. On his 

 return in 1855 he passed his examination for 

 membership of the Royal College of Physicians, 

 London. He worked indefutigably as physi- 

 cian to the Westminster General Dispensary, 

 as demonstrator of anatomy at St. Mary's Hos- 

 pital, lecturer on botany, assistant physician to 

 King's College Hospital, and physician to the 

 Middlesex Hospital and to the London Fever 

 Hospital. After six years' service in the last- 

 named hospital he wrote his great work on the 

 "Continued Fevers of Great Britain," which 

 has passed through numerous editions and 

 reached the rank of a classic. His experience in 

 Middlesex Hospital is embodied in his work on 

 the " Diseases of the Liver." A second edition 

 of this volume was published in 1877. His 

 practice was enormous and ever increasing, yet 

 he never pretermitted his studies or literary 

 labors, as attested by his contributions to the 

 " Lancet " and the " Edinburgh Medical Jour- 

 nal," and his numerous treatises on scientific 

 as well as professional subjects. Like his dis- 

 tinguished relative, Sir Roderick Murchison, ho 

 was passionately fond of geology, and he un- 

 dertook and accomplished the Herculean task 

 of editing the geological works of Dr. Falconer. 

 It was as a teacher that he reached the high- 

 est expression of his powers. In 1871 he was 

 appointed Professor of the Principles and 

 Practice of Medicine. His singular brilliancy 



and clearness proved a powerful attraction to 

 students. In 1877 he was made President of 

 the Pathological Society. HLs inaugural is a 

 model exposition of the method and limits of 

 such researches. 



In 1872, while in the midst of this life of toil 

 and usefulness, with the honors and rewards 

 of his profession pouring thick upon him, he 

 discovered that he was the subject of serious 

 heart-disease, induced by an attack of typhus 

 contracted in the Fever Hospital. He was ad- 

 vised that cessation of labor would probably 

 delay a fatal termination. After mature de- 

 liberation he decided that to him a life of idle- 

 ness would be the greater evil. Having made 

 the minutest preparations for impending death, 

 he resumed the arduous career of a London 

 physician in full practice, and died in the har- 

 ness. A patient had just left his consulting- 

 room. He leaned forward to note on a dia- 

 gram a fact concerning this case when the fatal 

 stroke fell. On the 26th of April he was bur- 

 ied in Norwood Cemetery. Dying thus in the 

 forty-ninth year of his age, in the prime of his 

 powers, he was a loss to science and to the 

 world. He was especially beloved by the stu- 

 dents and junior members of his profession. 

 He never spared himself when their interests 

 could be advanced. The sympathy and aid 

 they were sure to evoke were all the more 

 valuable because they came from a man of few 

 words and of a cold and reserved demeanor, 

 who had himself passed unblemished through 

 the ordeals they must undergo. 



N 



NEBRASKA. The Legislature of this State 

 opened its regular session on January 7th, and 

 closed it on the 27th of February in the morn- 

 ing, after a protracted sitting from the previous 

 day. 



A joint resolution was adopted instructing 

 the Nebraska delegation in Congress " to pro- 

 cure legislation to prohibit for ever the pay- 

 ment of the Southern war claims." 



An act creating a Reform School at Kearney 

 was passed. 



A game law was enacted, fixing the days on 

 which expires the time allowed for the killing 

 of certain species of animals, as follows : of 

 quail and wild turkeys, the first day of Decem- 

 ber ; of wild buffalo, elk, mountain-sheep, deer, 

 or antelope, the first day of January; of wild 

 grouse, the first day of February. It prohibits 

 the transportation of the various classes after 

 the above-mentioned dates respectively ; and 

 provides that " it shall be unlawful for any 

 person, agent, or employee of any association, 

 corporation, railroad company, or express com- 

 pany, to receive, carry, transport, or ship away 

 any such animal or bird at any other time of 

 the year." 



An act was passed appropriating the sum of 



$75,000 for the erection of an additional wing 

 in the State-House building. This appropria- 

 tion, for which the sum originally asked in the 

 bill was $100,000, was greatly opposed in the 

 Legislature, and by the people generally, as un- 

 necessary. 



The prohibition bill, so called, forbidding the 

 manufacture and sale of all drinks that may 

 inebriate, failed to pass. This measure, while 

 it was acted upon by the Legislature, engrossed 

 the interest of the people generally in a high 

 degree, a great number advocating and a 

 greater opposing it on several accounts. Two 

 mass meetings, the one for and the other 

 against the passage of the bill, were held at 

 Omaha on February 2d and 3d respectively. 



During this session of the Legislature strong 

 efforts were made by a large number of its 

 members to secure after its final adjournment 

 an extraordinary session. Democratic and Re- 

 publican members met in caucus jointly for 

 that purpose on February 17th, when, after a 

 lengthy discussion, it was resolved, by a vote 

 of 86 to 27, "that the best interests of the 

 State demand an immediate called session to 

 complete the revision laws." No special ses- 

 sion, however, was convened within the year. 



