For the greater part of his life, Bright enjoyed a very good state of health. During the last three years, however, he was seized, more than once, with an inflammation in his leg, attended with a fever, and such a disposition to mortification, as to make it necessary to scarify the part. By this expedient, and by the aid of fomentation and bleeding, he was always soon relieved. Whenever he was bled, he was always accustomed to have two pounds taken away at a time, and he was not more sensible of the loss of such a quantity than an ordinary man is of twelve or fourteen ounces.
Bright married at the age of twenty-two; he lived in the conjugal state upwards of seven years, in which time he had five children. An amiable mind inhabited his overgrown body. He was of a cheerful temper, a kind husband, a tender father, a good master, a friendly neighbour, and an honest man; so that it cannot be surprising if he was universally beloved and respected.
His last illness, which lasted about a fortnight, was a miliary-fever. It began with strong inflammatory symptoms, a very troublesome cough, difficulty of breathing, and the eruption was extremely violent. For some days, he was thought to be relieved in the other symptoms by the eruption; but it cannot be matter of wonder that his constitution was not able to withstand a disease which proves fatal to many who appear much more fit to grapple with it. He died on the 10th of November, 1750, in the thirtieth year of his age.
His body began to putrify very soon after death, notwithstanding the coolness of the weather, and the very next day became extremely offensive. The coffin was three feet six inches broad at the shoulders, and upwards of three feet in depth. A way was cut through the wall and stair-case to let it down into the shop. It was drawn to church on a low-wheeled carriage, by ten or twelve men, and was let down into the grave by an engine fixed up in the church for that purpose, amidst a vast concourse of spectators, not only from the town, but from the country for several miles round. After his death, a wager was laid, that five men, twenty-one years of age, could be buttoned in his waistcoat. It was decided on the 1st of December, 1750, at the Black Bull, at Malden, when not only five men, as proposed, but seven men were enclosed in it, without breaking a stitch, or straining a button.
Instances of a sudden and rapid increase in bulk, not less extraordinary than that of Lambert, have likewise been observed in children and even infants. In the year 1780, a phenomenon of this kind was publickly exhibited in London, in the person of Thomas Aills Everitt, born in February, 1779. The child’s father conducted a paper-mill by the side of Enfield Marsh, and was about thirty-six years of age; the mother about forty-two, of a healthy habit; but neither of the parents were remarkable for size or stature. Thomas was their fifth child; the eldest of three living, in 1780, was twelve years old, and rather small of his age; but the paternal grandfather was a size larger than ordinary. They had another son of uncommon proportion, who died in January, 1774, at the age of fifteen months. Thomas was not remarkably large when born, but began when six weeks old, to grow apace, and attained a most extraordinary size.
The child was soon afterwards conveyed to the house of a relation in Great Turnstile, Holborn; but the confined situation had such an effect on his health, that it was found necessary to carry him back to his native air. His extraordinary size tempted his parents to remove him again to the metropolis, and to exhibit him to the public. His dimensions, as stated in the handbills distributed at the place of exhibition, and under a print of Everitt and her son, published in January, 1780, were taken when he was eleven months old. His height was then three feet three inches; his girth round the breast, two feet six inches; the loins three feet one inch; the thigh, one foot ten inches; the leg, one foot two inches; the arm, eleven inches and a half; the wrist nine inches. He was well proportioned all over, and subsisted entirely on the breast. His countenance was comely, but rather more expressive than is usual at his age, and was exceedingly pleasing, from his being uncommonly good tempered. He had very fine hair, pure skin, free from any blemish, was extremely lively, and had a bright clear eye. His head was rather smaller in proportion than his other parts. From these circumstances, Sherwin ventured to prognosticate, that he was as likely to arrive at maturity, accidental diseases excepted, as any child he ever saw. This opinion might, undoubtedly, have been well founded, notwithstanding the child’s death, which took place about the middle of 1780, before he had attained the age of eighteen months.
But to return to Lambert:—He could not fail to be to every spectator an object of wonder and surprise; but to the man of science, and especially to the medical practitioner, his peculiarities must have been uncommonly interesting. It was impossible to behold his excessive corpulence, without being astonished that he was not long before suffocated by such an accumulation of substance. The perfect and uninterrupted flow of health which he enjoyed in his progress to his vast dimensions is likewise a remarkable trait in the history of Lambert.
While these, and other points of singularity, afford abundant room for speculation to the philosopher, the moralist will delight to investigate the qualities of that mind which animated such a prodigious body. Shrewd and intelligent, Lambert had improved his natural talents by reading and observation. In company, he was lively and agreeable; the general information he possessed, and the numerous anecdotes treasured up in a memory uncommonly retentive, rendered his society extremely pleasant and instructive. His readiness at repartee, his superiority in characteristic description, and the humorous sallies in which he often indulged, gave life, vivacity, and interest, to his conversation. With respect to humanity, temperance, and liberality of sentiment, Lambert may be held up as a model worthy of general imitation.
FINIS.