Timothy Richards Lezvis, M.B. xxvii 



Lewis felt that he must look into the point ; and, during the summer vacation at Netley 

 of 1884, he started off to Marseilles and Toulon, to satisfy himself regarding the alleged 

 discovery. On his return, he published a memorandum on the subject, in which he 

 stated that the result of his investigations went to show that the so-called cholera-bacillus 

 was only " an old friend under a new name " — a spirillum, broken up by manipulation, 

 which is to be found in the mouths of healthy persons. 



During the last year of his life, he was appointed honorary secretary to a Committee 

 convened by the Secretary of State for India, under the presidency of Sir William Jenner, 

 to consider a report by Drs. Klein and Gribbes, who had been sent to India by the Govern- 

 ment to investigate Koch's alleged discovery, and other points connected with the history 

 of cholera. He succeeded in drawing up a report, which was signed by every member of 

 the Committee. 



Only a fortnight before the commencement of his serious and fatal illness the value of 

 his many years of patient and laborious work was recognised by the Council of the Eoyal 

 Society, who recommended him for election as one of the Fellows for the present year ; 

 and, had he lived but a few more weeks, Lewis would have actually received this, the 

 " blue ribbon " of science. 



His sound common sense, his habit of going to the very root of every question, 

 his accurate and clear judgment, eminently fitted him for the investigation and exposi- 

 tion, so far as he could find the light, of the intricate and mysterious diseases it was his 

 lot in life to study. He devoted himself to his work with untiring and resistless energy, 

 never resting, never satisfied, and, like a true student in the fields of science, always 

 making one revelation the point from which to search for greater light, from which to 

 start upon more extended inquiries. 



Now he is at rest. " We may not stir the heaven of his repose with loud-voiced grief 

 or passionate request or selfish plaint ; " but in the sudden loss of a useful life at so early 

 an age, recognise at once " the burden and the mystery of all this unintelligible world." 



