320 JAMES CLERK MAXWELL. [CHAP. XL 



illnesses, both of a dangerously infectious nature, and 

 in both of them he was nursed by Mrs. Maxwell. In 

 September 1860 he had an attack of smallpox at 

 Glenlair, which he was supposed to have caught at the 

 fair, where " Charlie " was bought. During this illness 

 his wife was left quite alone with him the servants 

 only coming to the door of the sick-room. He has 

 been heard to say that by her assiduous nursing on 

 this occasion she saved his life. 



The second illness was in September 1865, also at 

 Glenlair. Maxwell had been riding a strange horse, 

 and got a scratch on the head from a bough of a tree ; 

 this was followed by an attack of erysipelas, which 

 brought him very low. Mrs. Maxwell was again his 

 nurse, and to listen, as he insisted on doing, to her 

 quiet reading of their usual portion of Scripture every 

 evening, was the utmost mental effort which he could 

 bear. 



1866-1870. The years which followed the resignation of his 



ML 35-39. 



post at King's College were spent, for the most part, 

 at Glenlair, the house being at this time enlarged 

 in general accordance with his father's plan. And 

 Maxwell took advantage of this retirement to em- 

 body some of the results of his investigations in 

 substantive books. The great work on Electricity 

 and Magnetism, although not published till 1873, was 

 now taking definite shape, and the treatise on Heat, 

 which appeared in 1870, had been undertaken as a 

 by-work during the same period. 



His scientific and other correspondence also took 



