470 BRIXDT/RY'S DEATH CHARACTERISTICS. PARTY. 



were, would have shortened his life, but for the far 

 more trying condition of the engineer's vocation irre- 

 gular living, exposure in all weathers, long tasting, and 

 then, perhaps, heavy feeding when the nervous system 

 was exhausted, together with habitual disregard of the 

 ordinary conditions of physical health. These are the 

 main causes of the shortness of life of most of our eminent 

 engineers, rather than the amount and duration of 

 their labours. Thus the constitution becomes strained, 

 and is ever ready to break down at the weakest place. 

 Some violation of the natural laws more flagrant than 

 usual, or a sudden exposure to cold or wet, merely 

 presents the opportunity for an attack of disease which 

 the ill-used physical system is found unable to resist. 

 Such an accidental exposure unhappily proved fatal to 

 Brindley. While engaged one day in surveying a branch 

 canal between Leek and Froghall, he got drenched 

 near Ipstones, and went about for some time in his 

 wet clothes. This he had often before done with im- 

 punity, and he might have done so again ; but, unfor- 

 tunately, he was put into a damp bed in the inn at 

 Ipstones, and this proved too much for his constitution, 

 robust though he naturally was. He became seriously 

 ill, and was disabled from all further work. Diabetes 

 shortly developed itself, and, after an illness of sonic 

 duration, he expired at his house at Turnhurst, on the 

 27th of September, 1772, in the fifty-sixth year of his 

 age, and was interred in the burying-ground at New 

 Chapel, a few fields distant from his dwelling. 



James Brindley was probably one of the most re- 

 markable instances of self-taught genius to be found in 

 the whole range of biography. The impulse which he 

 gave to social activity, and the ameliorative influence 

 which he exercised upon the condition of his country- 

 men, seem out of all proportion to the meagre intel- 

 lectual culture which he had received in the course 



