276 MEMOIR OF GEORGE WILSON. CHAP. VI. 



opening lecture on Animal Chemistry with great interest and 

 instruction. He has a very fine and penetrating mind, and is 

 marked out for eminence. We are getting wonderfully intimate, 

 and I enjoy nobody's society more." 



On May 9, George says to his sister-in-law, "Daniel will be 

 greatly grieved, I am sure, to learn of Sir Charles Bell's death, 

 and still more when he hears the circumstances : Sir Charles 

 was on a visit to a friend, and during the night was seized with 

 spasm in the stomach, to which he was subject. Lady Bell 

 arose to get him some laudanum, but he hastily recalled her to 

 his side, and leaned his head on her shoulder. She thought he 

 was merely squeamish, and supported him in this position for 

 three-quarters of an hour, till the doctor came. When the 

 doctor looked, he found he was dead, quite cold ; his poor wife 

 had mistaken her own breathing for his, and had been uncon- 

 sciously supporting his corpse all the while. He must have 

 died in a moment ; his death resulted from ossification of the 

 large arteries near the heart, which were found extensively 

 diseased. One of his last acts on the evening before was to 

 make a sketch of a yew in an old churchyard in the neighbour- 

 hood. He had been struck with the beauty of this churchyard, 

 and had said, that if asked to say where he should like to be 

 laid, it would be there. There he now slumbers." l 



A few weeks more, and George's struggle to keep at his post, 

 in spite of physical suffering, was at an end. The facts are best 

 given in his own words to his cousin : 



" May 24, 1842. 



" MY DEAR JAMES, I have this morning received your kind 

 letter, which, if it has grown out of a root of sadness, bears blos- 

 soms only of mirth and humour. But so it is always, the 

 gravest, soberest people, by their own account, are the best com- 

 forters of those they favour with their correspondence ; and I 

 have need of all the comfort you can give me. You ask me to 

 tell you about my lectures and pupils, and in return I have to 



l See < Life of Sir Charles Bell,' by Dr. Pichot, pp. 199, 200. 



