JACOB BIGELOW 127 



His lectures on the reform of medical educa- 

 tion, at a time when doctors easily obtained de- 

 grees or practised without them, provoked much 

 discussion both here and in Europe. Lecky wrote 

 a strong letter of dissent on receipt of Bigelow's 

 Modern Inquiries, but Lyell, Huxley and Spen- 

 cer " heartily thanked " the writer. 



After 1835, he began to get a little holidaying 

 into his life and made excursions over the coun- 

 try, also a second journey to Europe in 1848. 

 1870 saw him, an old man, with film impairing 

 his vision, crossing the continent to San Fran- 

 cisco. " He takes note of the Echo Canyon, the 

 Desert and Alkali Pines, the oak groves and 

 the wild flowers .... he goes to the valley in 

 which the gigantic Sequoias stand in their mar- 

 vellous grandeur. He had still a degree of bodily 

 vigor on his return sufficient for active exercise 

 for three more years.' 3 



" A gathering of cataracts upon his eyes was 

 his first disablement; then a partial dullness of 

 hearing; then a gentle but sensible dealing from 

 paralysis." For the last five years of his life he 

 was sightless and generally in bed. He reminded 

 a friend who pitied his blindness that we usu- 

 ally close our eyes before sleeping and he was 

 only doing it a little earlier. News of the out- 

 side world, in talk and book, still interested him 

 greatly, while the droll side of happenings met, 



