xlii 



Meantime, Dr. Bennett had married and taken a honse in Finsbury 

 Square, where he obtained considerable family and consulting prac- 

 tice, ami formed the friendship of Dr. Jeafferson, Dr. Gull, Dr. 

 Peacock, and Dr. Herbert Davies, who were then his neighbours. 



In 1875 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, and in 1876, 

 after serving several offices in the College of Physicians, he was 

 chosen to fill the highest official position in his profession by being 

 made its President. In the presidents! chair, Dr. Bennett was at his 

 best. Courteous and dignified, patient and intelligent, never pom- 

 pous and never weak, he showed on every occasion his good judg- 

 ment, good temper, and good sense. 



On his retirement, after five years service, he received the well- 

 earned honour of knighthood, and always retained the esteem and 

 confidence of the College. He had no pretention to oratory, but his 

 clear-headed and pithy remarks were always listened to with attention. 

 At the Council of the College and on the Council of the Royal Society 

 he was valued for his friendliness, his sagacity, and his power of 

 silence as well as of speech. 



Sir Risdon Bennett took an active part in the preparations for re- 

 ceiving the International Congress of Medicine which met in London 

 in 1881 ; and, as Chairman of the Reception Committee, welcomed 

 the visitors in a French speech which was delivered with remarkable 

 vigour, and was understood as well as applauded by all present, in- 

 cluding the Frenchmen. 



He had moved to Cavendish Square in the year 1876, and died 

 there of gradual but rapid senile decay at the ripe age of eighty- two. 



He was a man of "tall and dignified presence, and pleasant, un- 

 affected manner. Strictly upright and honourable in his professional 

 and private life, he was fond of conversation and society, a good 

 talker and a good listener, with no trace of envy in his composition, 

 and a cordial recognition of the merits of his compeers. Otherwise 

 happy in his family, he sustained a heavy loss in the death of his 

 eldest son, who, after a promising career at Cambridge, had only 

 lately been called to the Bar. With this exception, Sir Risdon 

 Bennett's course was one of uninterrupted prosperity. His piety 

 was deep and unobtrusive, and led him to devote much time and 

 labour to philanthropic work. He was well read in general as well 

 as medical literature, but published little — an eseay on Hydrocephalus, 

 written when he was a young man, the Lumleian lectures on thoracic 

 tumours, and a few cases in the medical journals — one published only 

 a year before his death. Perhaps his most characteristic appearance 

 in print was a, paper advocating counter-irritation as a mode of treat- 

 ment, which appeared in the ■ Practitioner.' 



His high character, his sagacious judgment, and the unaffected 

 sincerity of his convictions secured for him general respect and esteem, 



