The Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1837-1867, 1863-09-25
Life w asted.

Valuable lives are often thrown away
lost-through ignorance of some of the sim.
plest truths Of lature, or errors of Judgment
in matter where errors become a crime
Some of the best and wisest and greatest
men of our race have perished from the world,
in consequence 0: what might be considered
carelessness, recklessness, or an ignorance
which is amazing as found in minds like
theirs. The immediate cause of Lord Byron s
death was sleeping in damp bed. AnyIold
woman, who didn't know B from bulls foot,
would have had more sense than that Yet
it was the fatal error of the greatest mind of
his age ant generation. Washington Irving,
whose name is so loved and honored and
reveied. hastened his death by taking the
advice of Il fool, instead of his physician
Abbott Lawrence the fnancier and the phi
!anIhrcpis., brought ON his last illness by an
injudicious change OF clothing
Rachel, the sreats~t tragic actress of her
tine. to1k c5ld which carried Ler to her
grave, by riding from New York to b B.ston
in cars not sufficiently warmed. on a bitter
cold winters night, inmet.iat, after per-
.olmance. which had heated up her whole
system, far beyond It's natural standard. J.
Addison alexander, for whom it is claimed
tina. he was the 5ys, Billie scholar living. and
that he hid powers Of mind rot cqual!ed in
his day, died in til, very prime Of his life,
because. having feeling almost bordering
on contempt fer ph! sicians,' he allowed his
mortal ma!adv to prey upon him secretly
and the day he d he though; he was going
- get well. Because he knew nothing
about disease, he concluded, with all his re-
( sp!endent intellect, that men who had made
it llft-i0hg study. knew nothing about il.
The mag rfeent deduction cost him his life.
And now another lame comes up tc our no.
tee, In the same connection, as illustrating
the fact that the greatest minds are capable
of fo!lies most amazing. The philosopher,
the scholar. the soldier. and the Christian
wetr all bcnu,d in the name of Professor
! Mitchell, the great astronomer, the gallant
soldier, and resisless general. His was the
greatest loss to the nation, up to this hour
of the contest, and vet his life was literally
thrown away by his own inconsiderate act
by doing deliberately what We would suppose
the commonest mind in the nation would
have regarded as exceedingly dangerous
and it is named here to benefit the living
without prejudice 70 the honored and lament
ed dead. Gen. Mitchell was attacked with
symptoms Of yellow fever; his physician
acted promptly, and labored to restore the
functions of the skin, to cause perspiration
which every professional man acknowledges
to be the turning point for life in that dis
ease. 1t was eventually brought abou: to
the 6nspeakable joy of his medical attendant
DR.. Thomas I. Smiley, at II NJ, October 2S
1862 but when he returned, two hours later
his patient had been attacked with chill
the pulse went up from So to 12O, the Gen.
eral having got up aud ordered his bee
changed, while in this perspiring condition
Delirium set in, and he died, the attending
surgeon leaving this record: Il am of tn,
opinion that had Gen. Mitchell remained il
bed, and kept the skin in good condition, h,
would without doubt have recovered. Hall,
Journal Of Health.