DARWIN. 158 



After this last book Darwin felt much exhausted, and 

 wrote : " I feel so worn out that I do not suppose I 

 shall ever again give reviewers trouble." His brother 

 Erasmus's death in the same year was the severance of a 

 link with early days. Yet for some months he continued 

 in a moderate degree of health, still working. For some 

 weeks however in the following March and April he was 

 slightly unwell, and the action of his heart became so 

 weak that he was not allowed to mount the stairs. On 

 Tuesday, April 1 8, he was in his study examining a plant 

 which he had had brought to him, and he read the same 

 evening before retiring. Till the day of his death he did 

 not become seriously ill. On that day the heart, which 

 had so long done its duty, failed, and about 4 p.m., 

 on April 19, 1882, Charles Darwin breathed his last in 

 peace, aged seventy-three years, two months, and seven 

 days. 



