‘At Milan your father parted from his staff, and completed the work he had undertaken as far as it was necessary to do so in Italy. From Milan, therefore, our journey home was one of uninterrupted enjoyment through those glorious Lombard towns to Venice, which happily we reached in a gondola from Mestre, and not by a railway viaduct; then through the Tyrol to Munich, and so down the Rhine to Belgium, reaching home from Antwerp.
‘Thus was completed an expedition in which there was neither hitch nor disagreeable adventure of any kind, and upon which I look back with unmixed pleasure.
‘The next and last time that your father and I journeyed on the Continent together was in April 1848, when he wished to see Paris in Republican garb, and asked me to accompany him.
‘We were there for some days, and, armed with cards of admission, on which our names were inscribed with the prefix of “Citoyen,” heard and saw the various celebrities of the hour.
‘Affectionately yours,
J. C. Horsley.
‘Isambard Brunel, Esq.’
Within less than a year of Mr. Brunel’s return from his visit to Italy, a strange accident happened to him, which placed his life in great jeopardy.
On April 3, 1843, he was amusing some children at his house by the exhibition of conjuring tricks, when, in pretending to pass a half-sovereign from his ear to his mouth, the coin he had placed in his mouth slipped down his throat. After a few days he began to suffer from a troublesome cough, and on April 18 Sir Benjamin Brodie was consulted.
The nature of the accident and the course of treatment adopted are described in the following letter from Mr. Brunel’s brother-in-law, the late Dr. Seth Thompson, which was published in the ‘Times’ newspaper of May 16, 1843:—
I shall be much obliged by your giving insertion to the following statement of the treatment pursued by Sir Benjamin Brodie in the case of Mr. Brunel, it being the wish of Mr. Brunel and his friends that the true facts should be known, as a just tribute to the skill of this eminent surgeon, and as a guide to future practice. The accident happened on April 3; Sir B. Brodie was consulted on the 18th, and his opinion was that the half-sovereign had passed into the windpipe. The following day Mr. Brunel strengthened this opinion by a simple experiment. He bent his head and shoulders over a chair, and distinctly felt the coin drop towards the glottis; whilst raising himself a violent fit of coughing came on, which ceased after a few minutes. He repeated this a second time, with the same results. A consultation was held on the 22nd, at which it was decided that conclusive evidence existed of the half-sovereign having passed into the windpipe, that it was probably lodged at the bottom of the right bronchus, and that it was movable. It was determined that every effort should be made for its removal, and that for this purpose an apparatus should be constructed for inverting the body of the patient, in order that the weight of the coin might assist the natural effort to expel it by coughing. The first experiment was made on the 25th. The body of the patient being inverted, and the back gently struck with the hand between the shoulders, violent cough came on, but of so convulsive and alarming a nature that danger was apprehended, and the experiment was discontinued. On this occasion the coin was again moved from its situation, and slipped towards the glottis. On the 27th tracheotomy was performed by Sir B. Brodie, assisted by Mr. Aston Key, with the intention of extracting the coin by the forceps, if possible, or, in the event of this failing, with the expectation that the opening in the windpipe would facilitate a repetition of the experiment of the 22nd. On this occasion, and subsequently on May 2, the introduction of the forceps was attended with so much irritation, that it could not be persevered in without danger to life. On the 3rd another consultation was held, when Mr. Lawrence and Mr. Stanley entirely confirmed the views of Sir B. Brodie and Mr. Key, and it was agreed that the experiment of inversion should be repeated as soon as Mr. Brunel had recovered sufficient strength, the incision in the windpipe being kept open. On Saturday, the 13th, Mr. Brunel was again placed on the apparatus, the body inverted, and the back gently struck. After two or three coughs, he felt the coin quit its place on the right side of the chest, and in a few seconds it dropped from his mouth without exciting in its passage through the glottis any distress or inconvenience, the opening in the windpipe preventing any spasmodic action of the glottis.