XXV 



a man as he should riot go to the grave without some public recogni- 

 tion of the greatness of his work. 



Mr. Darwin became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1839 ; one of 

 the Royal Medals was awarded to him in 1853, and he received the 

 Copley Medal in 1804. The ' Life and Letters,' edited with admirable 

 skill and judgment by Mr. Francis Darwin, gives a full and singularly 

 vivid presentment of his father's personal character, of his mode of 

 work, and of the events of his life. In the present brief obitnary 

 notice, the writer has attempted nothing more than to select and 

 put together those facts which enable us to trace the intellectual 

 evolution of one of the greatest of the many great men of science 

 whose names adorn the long roll of the Fellows of the Royal Society. 



T, H. EL 



Mr. Thomas Blizard Curling, F.R.C.S., F.R.S., died at Cannes, 

 on the 4th of March, 1888, in the 78th year of age, of a severe attack 

 of pneumonia or congestion of the lungs, caused by chill. 



This distinguished surgeon was born in 1811, and resided in 

 London during the greater part of his professional life, which was 

 one of continued scientific and public utility. The value of his con- 

 tributions to surgery and pathology, his great eminence as a surgeon 

 and clinical teacher, and his upright, just, and honourable character, 

 not only placed him in the foremost rank of his profession, but- 

 secured for him the affection and esteem of the numerous friends who 

 deplore his loss. 



Mr. Curling had retired from the active duties of his profession as 

 Senior Surgeon of the London Hospital in 1869, but continued to 

 practise until within the last ten years, which were spent in well-earned 

 rest at Brighton, varied by occasional visits to the Riviera, where, as 

 has been stated, his career was brought to a sudden close by a severe 

 pulmonary attack. He obtained professional distinction early in 

 life; at the age of twenty-two he was appointed Assistant- Surgeon of 

 the London Hospital ; in this he appears to have been partly aided by 

 the influence of his uncle, Sir W. Blizard, who thus happily had the 

 means of placing the opportunity of advancement, which was so 

 readily seized and so fully utilised, within the grasp of the young 

 surgeon whose brilliant subsequent career proved how justly its early 

 promise had been estimated by those who appointed him to so 

 important a post. 



Mr. Curling's career as a hospital surgeon and teacher of surgery 

 was one of continued progress and success. A recent notice of him 

 says : — " Perhaps nowhere was his character more apparent than while 

 ward-visiting at the London Hospital. His methodical and punctual 



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