English Correspondence

and hydrocyanic acid with a view to discover some means cf relieving the pain of tinnitus atirium. For years this subject had received Mr. Toynbee's attention, but his previous experiment had failed to produce the desired result. Lately it struck him that by partially inhaling some anaesthetic, and the mouth and nostrils being closed by forcing it through the Eustachian tubes, the unpleasant sensation of tinnitus aurium might be allayed. But he must have by some accident allowed the vapor to pass into the lungs, and thus extinguished vitality. A patient having called, the deceased's servant went into his study and saw him lying on the sofa, as it were, asleep; but the presence of cottonwool over the mouth and nose, and something peculiar in the expression of his master's face, frightened him, and he ran for assistance. It was then, however, too late?the spirit of the martyr had fled. From the notes of experiments which lay on his chair beside him, and the watch evidently so placed as to enable the experimenter to calculate the time required for the operation, it was clear that suicide could not have been contemplated. Mr. Toynbee was in easy, indeed ia affluent circumstances, and just before his death had been appointed President of the Quekett Microscopical Club. He was a Fellow of the Koyal Society ; and, besides several published works and papers on the subject which he pursued as a specialist, he. had contributed a very valuable essay on the Anatomy of the Kidney to the .Medico-Chirurgical Transactions, and was well known for his efforts to establish a series of local museums over England for the encouragement of Natural History pursuits.