paid secretary resigned discouraged; and the society finally died a natural death, leaving behind it about 50%. in money, which is now (1861) lying at Beckett's Bank, waiting for some object on which it can properly be bestowed.'

The result of this particular effort was not very encouraging, but it deserves to be noted in connection with what has been said in the earlier portion of this chapter regarding the state of feeling in provincial towns forty years ago. Within the first decade after Dr. Heaton's settlement in practice in Leeds, we see not a few agencies established for the social and intellectual improvement of the inhabitants of the town. Some of these agencies are still in full operation among us; others, like the Improvement Society, after doing a certain amount of work, fell into a state of suspended animation, in which one or two of them still remain, but from which others, after a slumber of several years' duration, were roused to renewed activity. In every case, however, they show the gradual awakening and development of public opinion with regard to questions concerning which our fathers had never thought of troubling themselves. They had been content to go on like their fathers before them. The idea of Conversation Clubs, of amateur magazines, of popular scientific lectures, had never occurred to them. Nor had they troubled themselves about the narrowness of the streets through which

they moved, or the smoke-laden atmosphere which they were compelled to breathe. Gradually, however, in great part through the agency of modest institutions like the Leeds Conversation Club, and through the energetic and self-denying labours of men like Dr. Heaton, public opinion on these questions began to be formed, and efforts like those which I have described were made.

III

CHAPTER VI.

MARRIAGE AND FAMILY LIFE.

Ir was about the year 1848, when Dr. Heaton was first beginning the public career of which I have spoken in the preceding chapter, that he made the acquaintance of Miss Fanny Heaton, the lady to whom he was subsequently united in marriage; and who, though bearing the same surname as himself, was only distantly, if at all, related to him. It is obviously impossible in these pages to dwell at any length upon the story of an engagement between two persons one of whom is still living. One would like to print Dr. Heaton's own account of his courtship, because of the light which it throws upon his personal character

-a light which reflects nothing but honour upon him-but for many reasons that is out of the question. What may be said is, however, that from the first moment of his meeting with Miss Heaton, he was greatly attracted by her, and that before their acquaintance had lasted more than a few weeks he had resolved to win her as his wife. To his resolution he adhered firmly in spite of difficulties

and discouragements which were of more than ordinary gravity. The tenacity of his nature was in nothing shown more clearly than in this pursuit of a wife, whose friends, for some reason not clearly explained, did not approve of the connection. For two years, from 1848 to 1850, nothing occupied so large a share of his thoughts as his intended marriage, and the obstacles which threatened to prevent it. Those obstacles were at length happily removed, and on April 3, 1850, he and Miss Heaton were married by the Rev. William Sinclair at the parish church of St. George's. Dr. Heaton's sister Ellen, and the bride's sister Marian, were the bridesmaids, whilst Mr. Aldam Heaton and Mr. (now Sir Andrew) Fairbairn acted as groomsmen.

The young couple proceeded immediately after the marriage to the Continent for that trip up the Rhine which in those days was the traditional marriage tour. During their absence a vacancy occurred in the medical staff of the Leeds Infirmary by the resignation of Dr. Hopper, one of the physicians. Dr. Heaton had anticipated this event, and before leaving on his marriage journey had prepared printed circulars addressed to the trustees of the Infirmary, in which he made application for the post. The circulars were positively addressed by him before he left home, so that when the vacancy actually occurred all that was to be done was to post them. He was

elected without opposition to the office of physician to the Infirmary, which he continued to fill until his death.

On returning home with his wife, he at once threw himself with, if possible, increased ardour into the work of his profession. He was now physician to both of the chief medical charities of the town, as well as to the House of Recovery. At the Dispensary, indeed, he had to do the work of two physicians; whilst to add to his labours, during this year 1850, he had to contend with another severe fever epidemic which filled the House of Recovery, and had to deliver, during the summer, daily lectures at the Medical School on Botany and Materia Medica. In the autumn of the same year he wrote two articles for the British Quarterly Review,' one upon Apparitions' and the other upon 'Microscopes.' In addition, he lectured twice before the members of the Mechanics' Institution upon Botany, and then, as if all these employments were not sufficient to occupy him, he voluntarily undertook in September the whole of the physician's work at the Dispensary, Dr. Ronayne, who had hitherto shared the duties with him, having resigned. These facts show what his life was at the time of his marriage. His private practice, though it must have been an object of importance to the young husband to secure some addition to his income, was made subordinate to his