MEMOIR OF THE LATE ROBERT BALL, LL. D. 
31 
abridged or abandoned. When other public appointments were subse¬ 
quently added, he strove zealously to perform their duties, and most 
efficiently he did so; but he attained his end by giving up leisure, recre¬ 
ation, and bodily exercise. Nature enforced, as in all such cases, a 
heavy penalty for the neglect of those observances prescribed by the laws 
of health. 
It was in vain that friends in the country wrote and pressed him to 
come to them on a visit, holding out such attractions as their different 
localities offered. He thanked them, accepted their invitations; but 
deferred his going until “a more convenient season.” That season never 
came. The deaths of several eminent naturalists during the last few 
years, some of whom were among his most valued friends, were at times 
much in his thoughts, and were spoken of in pathetic terms. 
At the beginning of February, 1857, I was his guest for a few days, 
and thought he was looking particularly well, though complaining of 
sleepless nights. We were present at the conversazione given on the 4th 
of February by the President of the Eoyal Irish Academy. We went 
together, one forenoon, to call on Dr. Harvey at his rooms in College. 
In the ante-chamber the portraits of Forbes, Thompson, and other natu¬ 
ralists were on the walls. As we passed along, Dr. Ball stopped, pointed 
to the portraits of his deceased friends, and simply said, “ Who next ?” 
Before the ensuing month was ended, the question had been solved. 
He had been apparently in his usual health, when, on the morning 
of Friday, the 27th of March, he was suddenly seized with symptoms of 
an alarming kind. The illness, after assuming phases which for some 
hours renewed the hopes of his family, terminated fatally on the even¬ 
ing of Monday, the 30th. A post-mortem examination, held in confor¬ 
mity with his own express instructions, showed that the immediate 
cause of death was rupture of the aorta. 
The funeral took place on Friday morning, the 3rd of April, in the 
cemetery of Mount Jerome. The Eoyal Irish Academy, in its corporate 
capacity, took part in the mournful procession, the mace, enveloped in 
crape, being borne before the President. 
The members of the Eoyal Dublin Society and of the Dublin Uni¬ 
versity Zoological and Botanical Association were specially invited to 
attend by notices sent out by their respective Secretaries. 
In the brief interval between his death and his funeral many warm¬ 
hearted friends had been pondering in what way they could best testify 
their regard for him who had been removed from among them; but to the 
Board of Trinity College must be conceded the honour of being the first 
to adopt a line of conduct which would mark their respect to the dead, 
yet not wound the delicacy of the living. 
On the same day that his remains were consigned to the grave the 
Board met, passed a resolution granting to his widow an annuity for 
life, and had this communicated to her in the kindest and most consi¬ 
derate manner. 
On the ensuing morning the Council of the Zoological Society as¬ 
sembled as usual at the “ Gardens,” and adopted a course which testified 
their conviction of the loss they had sustained by Dr. Ball’s death, and 
