296 The late Mr. William Griffith. 



being added to those at the export warehouse, and all having been 

 previously cleaned and packed, I leave to you to present to Govern- 

 ment, for the Honorable Court of Directors, to be sent home with- 

 out any delay. As you know the trouble I have taken with these 

 collections, and the hopes I had of making them subservient to a ge- 

 neral scientific Flora of India, I need not impress on you how much 

 I am interested in their proper disposal, and their being brought 

 properly before the scientific public ; and I would say the same 

 regarding my drawings and manuscripts, which will accompany my 

 wife to Calcutta, should it so happen that I leave her. 



" In all the plans which I have consigned to your execution, both 

 regarding my wife and collections, I am confident your own feelings 

 will prompt you to every exertion on my account. Asking God's 

 blessing on you and your wife, I bid you good bye. 



" Thus far," continues Dr. Moorhead, his medical attendant, 

 " was written at Mr. Griffith's dictation, but I grieve to say the fatal 

 result came to pass yesterday evening, Sunday, 9th February, at half- 

 past seven o'clock." 



Memoranda on the above by Dr. M'Clelland. — " To the above de- 

 tails, furnished by Dr. Moorhead, I may remark that Mr. Griffith's 

 constitution for the last two or three years seemed greatly shattered, 

 his energies alone remaining unchanged. Exposure during his former 

 journeys and travels laid the seeds of his fatal malady in his consti- 

 tution, while his anxiety about his pursuits and his zeal increased ; he 

 became care-worn and haggard in his looks, often complaining of 

 anomalous symptoms marked by an extreme rapidity of pulse, in con- 

 sequence of which he had left off wine for some years past, and was 

 obliged to observe great care and attention in his diet. In Affghan- 

 istan he was very nearly carried off by fever, to which he had been 

 subject on his former travels in Assam. No government ever had 

 a more devoted or zealous servant, and I impute much of the evil 

 consequences to his health, to his attempting more than the means 

 at his disposal enabled him to accomplish with justice to himself." 



Although Mr. Griffith's researches were directed primarily to Bo- 

 tany, he neglected no opportunity, during his visits to various parts 

 of India, of attending also to other departments of Natural History. 

 Of his zeal and success in Zoology, the collections which he made 

 afford abundant proof ; they consist chiefly of mammalia, birds, fishes, 



