52 MBMOIE OP ALFEED SMEE. [Chap. VI. 



length and breadth of the land. My father was himself attacked 

 by it towards the close of the summer : happily he recovered, yet 

 I believe he permanently suffered from its effects. In September 

 we find him investigating into the cause of this direful malady, 

 and the results of his inquiry are incorporated in a paper 

 which appeared in the ' Lancet.' (See Appendix, No. XVIII.) It 

 should here be observed that whenever an epidemic of cholera 

 ensued, he had large quantities of cholera medicine (his own 

 prescription) made up and largely distributed. No one who came 

 to the house and asked for cholera medicine, whether for himself 

 or for friends, was refused. Numbers of persons flocked to the 

 house and availed themselves of this privilege. 



The close of this year was to bring a heavy affliction to Alfred 

 Smee, in the loss of his mother, to whom he was devotedly 

 attached, and for whom he held the highest respect and esteem. 

 He felt this loss most acutely, and his mind seemed for a time 

 quite unable to throw off its sorrow and pursue further scientific 

 investigations. At length Dr. Eoupell, the senior physician to 

 St. Bartholomew's, persuaded him to write an illustration or key 

 to 'Electro-Biology,' whereby the abstract principles of that 

 important work could be illustrated by facts, so that it might be 

 more readily comprehended by a larger portion of mankind. No 

 sooner did my father commence this new work than his wonted 

 energy was roused, and he entered with such heart and soul into 

 ' Instinct and Eeason ' (for that was the name of the book) that it 

 was published in April 1850. 



He did not even commence to write the book till the begin- 

 ning of that year, and it is a matter of surprise how such a work, 

 full of coloured plates and of various woodcuts, could have been 

 got out in such a marvellously short period. 



In the first chapter of ' Instinct and Eeason ' he treats of the 

 relation of Mind to Life, in which he makes the comparison 

 between man, animals, plants, stones, and pieces of mechanism. 

 For an example of animal existence he gives the dog, and shows 

 how the volitions of animals are regulated by experience, to prove 

 which he gives numerous facts ; and, indeed, I may here observe 

 that the great charm of this treatise consists in the most abstruse 

 laws of mental action being all made palpably clear to the mind 

 by various facts set forth in the form of interesting anecdotes, 

 nearly all of which were facts that had come under the range 

 of his own observation and experience. After showing how the 



