HIS ANTI-HYGIENIC HABITS. 443 
add, selecting also my comparison from the banks of the 
Nile, that in the apartments of Fourier, which were 
always of small extent, and intensely heated even in 
summer, the currents of air to which one was exposed, 
resembled sometimes the terrible simoon, that burning 
wind of the desert, which the caravans dread as much as 
the plague. 
The prescriptions of medicine which, in the mouth of 
M. Larrey, were blended with the anxieties of a long 
and constant friendship, failed to induce a modification of 
this mortal régime. Fourier had already experienced, 
in Egypt and Grenoble, some attacks of aneurism of the 
heart. At Paris, it was impossible to be mistaken with 
respect to the primary cause of the frequent suffocations 
which he experienced. A fall, however, which he sus- 
tained on the 4th of May, 1830, while descending a flight 
of stairs, aggravated the malady to an extent beyond 
what could have been ever feared. Our colleague, not- 
withstanding pressing solicitations, persisted in refusing 
to combat the most threatening symptoms, except by the 
aid of patience and a high temperature. On the 16th of 
May, 1830, about four o’clock in the evening, Fourier 
experienced in his study a violent crisis the serious 
nature of which he was far from being sensible of ; fpr, 
having thrown himself completely dressed upon his bed, 
he requested M. Petit, a young doctor of his acquaint- 
ance who carefully attended him, not to go far away, in 
order, said he, that we may presently converse together. 
But to these words succeeded soon the cries, “ Quick, 
quick! some vinegar! I am fainting!” and one of the 
men of science who has shed the brightest lustre upon 
the Academy had ceased to live. 
Gentlemen, this cruel event is too recent, that I should 
