406 JAMES CLERK MAXWELL. [CHAP. XIII. 



CHAPTEK XIII. 



ILLNESS AND DEATH 1879 JET. 47, 48. 



AFTER his recovery from the attack of erysipelas at 

 Glenlair in 1865, Maxwell's health appears to have 

 been fairly good until the spring of 1877. He then 

 began to be troubled with dyspeptic symptoms, 

 especially with a painful choking sensation after 

 taking meat. He consulted no one for about two 

 years. But one day in 1877, on coming into the 

 Laboratory after his luncheon, he dissolved a crystal 

 of carbonate of soda in a small beaker of water, and 

 drank it off. A little while after this he said he had 

 found how to manage so as to avoid pain. The 

 trouble proved obstinate, however, and at last, on 

 the 21st of April 1879, he mentioned it when writing 

 to Dr. Paget about Mrs. Maxwell. 



By this time his friends at Cambridge had begun 

 to observe a change in his appearance, and some 

 failure of the old superabundant energy. They 

 missed the elasticity of step, and the well-known 

 sparkle in his eye. During the Easter Term of 1879 

 he attended the Laboratory daily, but only stayed a 

 very short time. At the end of the term he remarked 

 that he had been unable to do much more than to 



