xiv 



1826, being partly urged to the step by his friends, and partly influenced 

 by consideration for his wife's health, be left Rome ; and after a few months 

 spent in visiting the chief medical institutions of France and Germany, and 

 the Pyrenean and German baths, then very little known in England, he 

 settled in London. In the autumn of 1827 he was attacked with typhoid 

 fever, and was ill for several months. He never recovered perfectly from 

 this attack ; it left a delicacy of digestion behind it, and permanently 

 enfeebled him. 



Soon after settling in London, Prince Leopold, afterwards King of the 

 Belgians, whose attention had been called to him by his investigation of 

 the German waters, appointed him his physician, and this subsequently (in 

 1834) led to his appointment as physician to the Duchess of Kent. 



In 1829 he published his larger work on the ' Sanative Influence of 

 Climate.' This work, which was long considered the standard book on 

 climate, and went through several editions, has had a very wide influence, 

 not only on medical practice, but on the collection of meteorological and 

 other data respecting climatic conditions. He subsequently (1832) pub- 

 lished articles on air and climate in the * Cyclopsedia of Practical Medicine.' 



In the autumn of 1829 Prince Leopold, who was then engaged in the 

 negotiation which resulted in his refusal of the crown of Greece, offered, if 

 he accepted the crown, to take Dr. Clark to Athens ; but this he declined. 



He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1832, and in 1835 pub- 

 lished his ' Treatise on Consumption and Scrofula,' which, as well as the 

 work on climate, was translated into Italian, German, and French, and 

 passed in this country through several editions. 



Soon afterwards he wrote an article on tubercular phthisis in the * Cyclo- 

 psedia of Practical Medicine.' 



Two years subsequently, on the accession of Her Majesty, he was ap- 

 pointed Physician in Ordinary, and subsequently received a similar ap- 

 pointment to Prince Albert. 



From this time the life of Sir James Clark (he was made a baronet in 

 1838) was spent in the discharge of his responsible duties as medical 

 adviser to the Court, and in the fatigues of a London practice. It was 

 therefore impossible for him to continue his scientific observations on 

 climate, or even to prosecute further his more purely professional inquiries. 

 But indirectly, in this latter period of his life, he lent a most powerful aid 

 to science. 



He was always ready to help, and to use his influence, which yearly 

 became greater, both with the Court and with the leaders of parties, for 

 the furtherance of scientific objects, and for the advance of education. It 

 is difficult to give a complete account of what he did in this direction, as 

 he has left no records. He was, indeed, singularly indifferent to the recog- 

 nition of his services, and, provided the end was gained, did not desire that 

 his share in it should be known. But his chief influence appears to have 

 been directed to the improvement of medical and of general education, 



