Life of Count Rumford. 407 



engage Dr. Young in the aforesaid capacities, at a 

 salary of 300 per annum!' 



The Count's visit to Harrowgate, in Yorkshire, in 

 July, 1800, was with a view to the recovery of his 

 health. References have more than once been made 

 in the previous pages to the prostration and suffering 

 which were visited upon him while performing his most 

 arduous labors, and, as he seems to have thought, in 

 consequence of the exertions and self-sacrifices which 

 they required of him. There are hints dropped in 

 some contemporary notices of him which imply that 

 he practised some unwise or fanciful experiments on 

 himself in the matters of diet and exercise, and that his 

 originality or ingenuity in this direction may have 

 enfeebled him. There are no apparent grounds for 

 these reflections save the facts that he was frequently ill, 

 and that he was somewhat notional as regards his food. 

 He certainly was not a hypochondriac, though he was 

 probably a dyspeptic. His associate, Dr. Young, de- 

 scribes his peculiarities of physical habit, and the regi- 

 men to which he had recourse, as being adopted in 

 obedience to his medical advisers, rather than as fancies 

 of his own. The Count's daughter makes many refer- 

 ences to her father's frequent weakness and illness, and 

 we have seen that he himself mentions his own troubles 

 of this sort as compelling him to intermit his labors in 

 Munich for the sake of rest and travel, and that he was 

 not able to resume them all on his return. 



The more, therefore, must we appreciate his never 

 intermitted industry, and constant devotion of time and 

 thought in efforts and ingenious schemes for the good of 

 others. If many of these labors were devised and car- 

 ried out, as in all probability they were, while he was 



