Wallich having proceeded to the Cape for the re-establishment of his
health, Mr. Griffith was recalled in August 1842 to take, during his
absence, the superintendence of the Botanic Garden near Calcutta, in
conjunction with which he also discharged the duties of Botanical
Professor in the Medical College to the great advantage of the students.
Towards the end of 1844 Dr. Wallich resumed his functions at the Botanic
Garden. In September Mr. Griffith married Miss Henderson, the sister of
the wife of his brother, Captain Griffith, and on the 11th of December he
quitted Calcutta to return to Malacca, where he arrived on the 9th of
January in the present year. On the 31st of the same month he was
attacked by hepatitis, and notwithstanding every attention on the part of
the medical officer who had officiated during his absence, and who
fortunately still remained, he gradually sunk under the attack, which
terminated fatally on the 9th of February. "His constitution," says his
attached friend, Mr. MacClelland, in a letter to Dr. Horsfield, "seemed
for the last two or three years greatly shattered, his energies alone
remaining unchanged. Exposure during his former journeys and travels
laid the seeds of his fatal malady in his constitution, while his anxiety
about his pursuits and his zeal increased. He became care-worn and
haggard in his looks, often complaining of anomalous symptoms, marked by
an extreme rapidity of pulse, in consequence of which he had left off
wine for some years past, and was obliged to observe great care and
attention in his diet. In Affghanistan he was very nearly carried off by
fever, to which he had been subject in his former travels in Assam. No
government ever had a more devoted or zealous servant, and I impute much
of the evil consequences to his health to his attempting more than the
means at his disposal enabled him to accomplish with justice to himself."

"The most important of Mr. Griffith's published memoirs are contained in
the Transactions of the Linnaean Society. Previous to starting on his