2-888-773 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Whitehall Gardens, London, 1850. Crowds outside the home of former British Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel, who had been out riding when his horse '...threw Sir Robert over its head upon his face...[He was taken to his house where he] '...swooned in the arms of Dr. Foucart, and was placed upon a sofa in the nearest apartment...From this apartment Sir Robert was never removed, and so extremely sensitive to pain did he speedily become, that it was only after very considerable difficulty that he could be removed from the sofa to a patent hydraulic bed...An examination was immediately made, with the view of ascertaining what description of injury the right hon. Baronet had sustained...The relatives were now informed that all the relief medical science could afford was exhausted, and that no hope whatever existed of being able to prolong Sir Robert's life...'. From "Illustrated London News", 1850.