By the mid-1880's ill health and the sleeplessness that had plagued Tyndall
since his days in Germany began to take their toll and in 1887 he resigned from
his professorship at the Royal Institution. He retired to Hampshire, but kept
himself occupied with politics campaigning against Gladstone and the Home Rule
bill. His health deteriorated and in 1891 he was unable to go to the Alps in the
summer for the first time in more than 30 years. As his sleeplessness became
worse he experimented more and more with drugs until tragically in 1893 Tyndall
died from an overdose of chloral accidentally administered by his wife Louisa.