1829. JET. 56.] PROFESSOR YOUNG. 255 



Almanac.' A report on this paper was made by Dr. 

 Young in February. 



Though, his health was at this time rapidly declining, his 

 observations were written with his usual precision and 

 ability, giving way in one instance only to feelings of 

 personal resentment, if a stronger term may not be used, 

 which had been provoked by attacks of unusual violence 

 and bitterness. It is hardly necessary to add that he 

 adhered substantially to the views which he had previously 

 maintained. His death, which took place on May 10, put 

 an end to the contest. 



The life of Dr. Young began, continued, and ended 

 strangely. Throughout he was a phenomenon. His 

 course was very different from what might have been 

 expected and quite opposed to that which would have 

 been most suited to him. 



He was the great physicist of his time, and yet ' at 

 no period of his life was he fond of repeating experi- 

 ments or even of originating new ones. He considered 

 that, however necessary to the advancement of science, 

 they demanded a great sacrifice of time ; and that, when 

 a fact was once established, that time was better 

 employed in considering the purposes to which it 

 might be applied or the principles which it might tend 

 to elucidate.' He was kind by nature and a Quaker 

 by education, and yet he was 'always at war for bis 

 discoveries. He never was free from a scientific or 

 literary controversy. As a professor at the Eoyal 

 Institution, as a hospital physician at St. George's, 

 and still more as a practitioner of medicine in London 

 and Worthing, his powers were entirely misdirected. 





