Page:Isvar Chandra Vidyasagar, a story of his life and work.djvu/264

Rh combined with the excessive grief and anguish that he had suffered at the untimely death of his two dear, little brothers, whom he had fetched to Calcutta for education, related above, brought on him a severe malady. Some five or six months after he had been made Principal of the Sanskrit College, he was, one day, seized with an acute head-ache, which gradually sat deep-rooted and was converted into severe, chronic head-disease. Medical treatments of different kinds brought on some relief, but failed to cure him radically. The malady however could not, at that time, completely over-power and disable him, for he had a very robust constitution. He used to engage himself daily in gymnastic exercises and other athletic sports, both morning and evening. He had thus such an excessive quantity of blood accumulated in his blood-vessels, that his medical attendants were afraid of his having some serious indisposition at no distant future. Dr. Nil Madhav Mukharji, therefore, twice opened the veins of his neck, and bled him profusely.

Shortly after he had been installed as Principal of the Sanskrit College, Vidyasagar had to meet with a most heart-rending, afflicting calamity in