Page:Journal of the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks.djvu/48

xlii for Mr. Hunter, whilst Professor Linnæus went to call Dr. Heberden and Dr. Pitcairne. All these gentlemen have been with him, and the necessary remedies prescribed. I dare not say what the event will be, but am not without hopes, notwithstanding the extreme danger with which you know all paralytic strokes are attended. It was found impossible to move him; Lady Banks has therefore been so kind as to order an apartment for him in her house, and I shall quit him as little as possible, particularly not to-night. You may judge of the affliction of every one here. I am so much affected myself that I know not what to say to you, but that I am most affectionately yours,

It is a striking testimony of the regard in which Solander was held, that the foremost physicians of the day should be summoned to his side at the moment of attack, and that the son and successor of his botanical preceptor should be one of the messengers in search of medical aid. All efforts were unavailing to prolong his life, for he died at Soho Square on the 16th of the same month.

He is stated to have been a short, fair man, somewhat stout, with small eyes, and a good-humoured expression of countenance. The genus Solandra is his botanical memorial, named after him by his fellow-countryman, Swartz. A full-length portrait of him, by an unknown artist, in the possession of the Linnean Society (to which body it was given by R. A. Salisbury), is here reproduced.