while he was gradually wasting, their constant language was—‘What can we do for a man who will do nothing for himself?’ At the same time they owned they could not discern his disorder, though he was ready and willing to follow such prescriptions as they should direct. All this while, that is during the months of November, December, and January, they made not the least attempt to investigate the seat or origin of his disease; nor did they call for the aid of a surgeon to examine his body minutely, and thus discover the latent mischief.
“Dr. Blagdon (Secretary of the Royal Society, who had studied physic, and practised for some time in America) alone uniformly declared he was confident the complaints of Sir Joshua Reynolds were not imaginary, but well founded, and that some of the principal viscera were affected. His conjecture proved but too correct; for on his body being opened, his liver which ought to have weighed aboul five pounds, had attained the great weight of eleven pounds. It was also somewhat scirrhus. The optic nerve of the left eye was quite shrunk, and more flimsy than it ought to have been. The other, which he was so apprehensive of losing, was not affected. In his brain was found more water than is usual in men of his age.”
One of the legatees of Sir Joshua was the poet Mason—his gift, The Miniature of Milton by Cooper. The announcement made to him produced the following letter to Malone, which from one filling a prominent place in English literature, deserves record here—
