Illness and Death
Around the end of 1849, he contracted a disease which increasingly disabled him until his death in 1856. Post-mortem examination identified a tubercular infection of the upper cervical vertebrae which had spread to the brain. The plot for his grave had been reserved but, when the gravedigger set to work, it was found that an outcrop of solid Jurassic limestone lay just below ground level and explosives had to be used for excavation. This may have been a last jest by the noted geologist, reminiscent of Richard Whatley’s Elegy intended for Professor Buckland written in 1820:
- Where shall we our great Professor inter
- That in peace may rest his bones?
- If we hew him a rocky sepulchre
- He’ll rise and break the stones
- And examine each stratum that lies around
- For he’s quite in his element underground
Read more about this topic: William Buckland
Famous quotes containing the words illness and/or death:
“...his illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him.”
—Bible: Hebrew, 1 Kings 17:17.
“Death is too much for men to bear, whereas women, who are practiced in bearing the deaths of men before their own and who are also practiced in bearing life, take death almost in stride. They go to meet death—that is, they attempt suicide—twice as often as men, though men are more “successful” because they use surer weapons, like guns.”
—Roger Rosenblatt (b. 1940)