180 TRIBUTE TO THE MEMORY 



I cannot describe the feeling of anguish and 

 desolation that came over me when I was told of 

 my bereavement. At first, I could scarcely be- 

 lieve the fact that my beloved friend was really 

 gone, and gradually sunk into a state of apathy 

 and indifference to all around, in which I conti- 

 nued for several weeks. 



Thus died, in his twenty-eighth year. Dr. 

 Thomas Briggs. He was the eldest son of Dr. 

 Briggs of Liverpool. He was possessed of ex- 

 cellent abilities, which had been carefully culti- 

 vated by his parents from infancy. From the 

 Charter-house he went to Cambridge, where he 

 was unanimously elected to the Tancred medical 

 studentship of Caius College, which situation he 

 held for eight years, passing the whole of the 

 time in- colleges, hospitals, dispensaries, and dis- 

 secting-rooms, in Edinburgh, London, Dublin, 

 Paris, and Munich. In each university he was 

 distinguished by his unremitting diligence in the 

 acquisition of science, and equally so for the 

 amiable qualities which adorned his mind and 

 made him a general favourite wherever he was 

 known. During our tedious voyage, and espe- 

 cially since our entrance into the Niger, to me 

 liis society had been a source of constant grati- 



