CHAP. VI.] LECTURE ON ELECTRO-BIOLOGY. 51 



sacred person of my only and beloved child, I beg to say, that if such 

 instructions are not countermanded, I shall be obliged to put personal 

 restraint on the actions of my darling ; in consequence of that restraint he 

 will pine away and sink into an early grave, leaving a tender mother and 

 a doting grandmother to bewail his loss. Mr. Smee, you are a father, and 

 to your feelings as a father I appeal. I need say no more, I am sure. Be 

 generous, and my thanks, my warmest and most unbounded gratitude, 

 shall be yours. 



The carrying out of the numerous experiments required for this 

 great work was laborious, and his private practice and his official 

 duties taking up the best part of the day, he was obliged to steal 

 those hours that are by most persons devoted to rest and sleep. 

 The physical experiments relating to the laws of voltaic electricity 

 are to be found in ' Electro-Metallurgy,' and we have seen that 

 * Sources of Physics ' was expressly written as an introduction to 

 the ' Elements of Electro-Biology.' There is such a lucid plan 

 of this book in ' Chambers's Edinburgh Journal ' that I have 

 transcribed it among my father's writings, at No. XYI. of the 

 Appendix. I do not know by whom the account was written. 



In April of the same year Mr. Smee delivered a lecture at the 

 London Institution on Electro-Biology before a crowded audience. 

 At this lecture Mr. Smee's injections of the brain were ex- 

 hibited, which elicited these words from one of the daily papers, 

 " These injections were of surpassing beauty, and well illustrated 

 the exclamation of the inspired Psalmist, 'How fearfully and 

 wonderfully are we made !' " 



The lecture was afterwards printed, and published with the 

 ' Principles of the Human Mind,' written as a sequel to ' Electro- 

 Biology.' This as the learned Dr. Pereira wrote, " Your lec- 

 tures on Electro -Biology and the Principles of the Human Mind 

 are very briefly but clearly drawn up, and will aid much in read- 

 ing your longer copy " I have transcribed in the Appendix, 

 No. XVII. Besides this lecture, Mr. Smee gave others on the 

 same subject elsewhere. Throughout the country he was re- 

 peatedly asked to deliver lectures, but he had not time at his 

 disposal so to do. 



This year also he wrote (the 3rd of March, 1849) in the 

 'Morning Chronicle' a short article on Gutta-percha and its 

 Uses. 



The summer of 1849, it may be remembered, was a sad one 

 for numbers of persons ; for that direful scourge, pestilence, in 

 the form of cholera, had made its ravages felt throughout the 



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