Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 8.djvu/205

Rh the activity and application of his early youth had been frequently checked, his maladies had increased from year to year, so that in 1834 he was obliged to renounce the more active part of his profession, and confine himself to consulting practice. His constitution rallied in consequence of this relief, and from 1837 to 1841 he enjoyed a better state of health than he had hitherto experienced. At a later period, however, his ailments returned, and with so permanent a hold, as convinced him that, however lingering his last illness might be, it had now commenced in good earnest. Still, however, his wonted tranquillity, and even cheerfulness, were unabated; and to the last he continued to correspond with his friends upon those important subjects which had formed the great study of his life. At length, by the recommendation of his medical advisers, he tried the effect of the climate of Madeira, to which island he repaired in November 1842. After having dwelt a few months there and returned home, he was obliged to make a second visit to Madeira, where he wintered during 1843–44. As voyaging was found beneficial in protracting at least the inevitable termination of his disease, he tried the effect of a trip to New York in the spring of 1847. But this, the last, was the most unfortunate of all his voyages, for the vessel in which he sailed carried 360 steerage passengers, chiefly Irish emigrants; and as the steerage extended from stem to stern of the vessel, the cabin overhead was pervaded during the whole passage with a sickening atmosphere, the effect of which accelerated his dissolution. Having made a three weeks' sojourn in New York, he returned to Scotland; and only six weeks subsequently he died, after a short illness, on the 9th of August, 1847. He had thus only reached the age of fifty, but the chief subject of wonder is, that he had lived so long and done so much. He could never have held out so well but for his close and conscientious attention to those rules of health which he recommended to others; and thus, although he might be considered a dying man at the age of confirmed manhood, he was permitted to enjoy that which, above every other earthly blessing, he most valued—a life of thorough and benevolent usefulness. Even to the last he was thus occupied; and when the pen dropped from his fingers, it was in the act of writing to a friend for information about the regulations of emigrant vessels, as he was at that time employed, during the brief intervals of his last illness, in preparing a communication upon the ship-fever, which in that year was so fatal in the statistics of British emigration. "Dr. Combe belonged," as is well observed by one who intimately knew and deeply loved him, "to that rare class of physicians who present professional knowledge in connection with the powers of a philosophical intellect; and yet, in practical matters, appear constantly under the guidance of a rich natural sagacity. All his works are marked by a peculiar earnestness, lucidity, and simplicity, characteristic of the author; they present hygienic principles, with a clearness for which we know no parallel in medical literature. To this must be ascribed much of the extraordinary success they have met with; and on this quality, undoubtedly rests no small portion of their universally acknowledged utility. . . . The personal character and private life of Dr. Combe formed a beautiful and harmonious commentary upon his writings. In the bosom of his family, and the limited social circle to which his weakly health confined him, he was the same benignant and gentle being whom the world finds addressing it in these compositions. . . . . Kindly and cordial to all, he did not seem to feel as if he could have an enemy; and therefore, we believe, he never had one. It might almost have been said that he was too gentle and unobtrusive; and so his friends, V.