72 Dr. Andretv Trmible on The Romance of Tuberculosis. 



truth in what he had said. The tubercle bacillus was a 

 traitor in that he had not failed to attack royalty — our own 

 Richard III. apparently suffered from tuberculosis of the spine. 

 Again he hesitated not to strike dowm the little Dauphin of 

 France, " the king who never reigned." Amongst artists, he laid 

 his hand on Watteau and Sebastian Le Sage. Amongst poets, 

 he shortened the lives of Henry K. White, Keats, Elizabeth 

 Ban-ett Browning, Sidney Lanier, Henley, and Francis Thomp- 

 son, while it was on account of tubei'culosis that Shelley made 

 the journey to Italy, where he was destined to meet with so tragic 

 a death. He stilled the notes of Henry Purcell, Paganini, 

 Chopin, and Weber. Amongst preachers, he carried off George 

 Herbert, and attempted, but failed, to carry off John Wesley. 

 Even famous soldiers fell in combat with him, for he sent to an 

 early grave one of Napoleon's most famous Generals — Hoche. 

 Historians had bowed before his ravages ; Green died at 46 

 dictating the end of his English History from his death-bed, and 

 Smollett fell before him. Novelists had succumbed to his blows, 

 two of the Brontes and Robert Louis Stevenson being amongst 

 his victims. Litterateurs such as Thoreau, John Addington 

 Symonds, and Heinrich Heine fell in the unequal contest with 

 him. Wits like Artemus Ward and Tom Hood made the world 

 laugh while they were dying from his assaults, nor must they 

 forget the wisdom, so akin to wit, of ^-Esop, nor the wit, so akin 

 to wisdom, of our own Mr. Punch — the modern Punchinello. 

 Finally, it was the tubercle bacillus that drove Cecil John Rhodes 

 to seek for health in South Africa, and, incidentally, to lay the 

 foundations of an empire. No serious attempt had yet been made 

 to assess the influence of disease on intellectual workmanship. 

 The tubercle bacillus undoubtedly had on more than one occasion 

 altered the course of destiny— had been, indeed, destiny itself. 



Questions were asked and answered, and at the close a vote 

 of thanks was heartily accoi'ded Dr. Trimble, on the proposition 

 of Professor Symmers, who expressed the hope that the doctor 

 would give an address in the near future on the work upon which 

 he was engaged in Belfast. 



