288 Josiah Wedgwood CHAP, xxi 



hill, I ascribe to the distant approach of age, and not 

 to asthma. You know how unwilling we all are to 

 grow old. As you are so well, I advise you to leave off 

 the bark, and take no medicine at present." 



A few days after the date of the doctor's letter, 

 Wedgwood's right cheek began to swell. Thinking it 

 was caused by toothache, he sent for Mr. Bent to draw 

 the tooth. On inspecting the interior of his mouth, 

 the surgeon, to his dismay, found the beginnings of 

 gangrene. Dr. Darwin came over from Derby, and 

 called in two other physicians, but nothing could be 

 done. The patient gradually grew worse. The inflam- 

 mation extended into his throat. The fever increased, 

 he became insensible, and he unconsciously passed 

 away on the 3rd of January 1795, in the sixty-fifth year 

 of his age. Three days after, he was buried in the 

 porchway of the old parish church of Stoke. 



