all this was merely weakness, which he hoped to overcome by invigorating his system with the cold-water treatment and long walks.  He found the violin work at the theatre very exhausting, but if he took a sharp seven hours’ walk into the country he invariably felt much better.  However, he could not rid himself of his chest attacks or of his hoarseness, and had a difficulty in making himself heard even when speaking to a person quite near him.  Up to that time I had been unwilling to alarm the poor fellow, and always hoped that his condition would necessitate his consulting a doctor, who would naturally prescribe rational treatment.  Now, however, as I was continually hearing nothing from him but assurances of his confidence in the principles of the water cure, I could contain myself no longer, and I entreated him to give up this madness and place himself in the hands of a sensible doctor, for in his condition what he most needed was, not strength, but very careful attention.  The poor man was extremely alarmed at this, as he gathered from my remarks that I feared he was already in an advanced stage of consumption.  ‘What is to become of my poor wife and children,’ he wrote, ’if that is really the case?’ Unhappily, it was too late; with the last strength that was left him he tried to write to me again, and finally my old friend Fischer, the chorus-master, carried out Uhlig’s instructions, and when these were no longer audible he had to bend down close to his lips.  The news of his death followed with frightful rapidity.  It took place on the 3rd of January, 1853.  Thus, in addition to Lehrs, another of my really devoted friends was carried off by consumption.  The handsome copy of the Ring des Nibelungen I had intended for him lay uncut before me, and I sent it to his youngest boy, whom he had christened Siegfried.  I asked his widow to let me have any pamphlets of a theoretical nature he might have left behind, and I came into possession of several important ones, among them the longer essay on ‘Theme-Structure.’  Although the publication of these works would involve a great deal of trouble, owing to the necessity of revising them, I asked Hartel of Leipzig if he would pay the widow a fair sum for a volume of Uhlig’s writings.  The publisher declared he could not undertake to bring it out without payment, as works of that nature were quite unremunerative.  It was obvious to me, even at that time, how thoroughly every musician who had taken a keen interest in me had made himself disliked in certain circles.

Uhlig’s melancholy death gave my home-circle the whip-hand over me with regard to my theories on the subject of water cures.  Herwegh impressed upon my wife that she must insist upon my taking a glass of good wine after all the exertion I underwent at the rehearsals and concerts which I was attending throughout that winter.  By degrees, also, I again accustomed myself to enjoy such mild stimulants as tea and coffee, my friends meanwhile perceiving to