The life and works of Brown-Séquard / by M. Berthelot.

  • Berthelot, M. (Marcellin), 1827-1907.
Date:
1900
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The life and works of Brown-Séquard / by M. Berthelot. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    would be very unjust to make general. Among the devotees of science there are “many who are happy to aid and encourage beginners, to sus¬ tain them, and to hand to them in turn the torch of science, which it is our duty, our honor, and our pleasure to keep burning still more bril¬ liantly during the next generation. In this manner Brown-Sequard lived until about 1848. At this epoch, so fertile in disclosures and in quickly-blighted hopes, he found himself placed, because of his experimental work, in relation with the Society of Biology, founded during that very year, and of which he was later to become one of the principal pillars of support. The Society of Biology had just been founded at the instance of cer¬ tain young men, such-as Charles Bobin, Claude Bernard, Follin, and others whose names have become well known. Brown-Sequard was one of its first four secretaries. It was and has not ceased to be an excellent forum for the study and discussion of problems of natural science, a forum less solemn than those of the academies, the discussions being more friendly, not being exposed in the same degree to disturbing vanities and t>ersonalities unduly excited by a sometimes excessive publicity. There is found there a sincerity and consequently a greater certitude in the demonstrations as well as the concurrence and col¬ laboration of comrades of the same age not yet disunited by the rival¬ ries of a career. On the other hand, resources of all kinds were scanty at the Society of Biology. Science, especially at that time, furnished but little to beginners. Since then the Bepublic has increased these resources, especially in the form of those scholarships for superior instruction, which have in recent times been unjustly attacked by those who have narrow views, and who are perhaps actuated by jealousy of progressive methods. While the Society of Biology did not furnish the same resources as we have at our command to-day, it nevertheless aided, even from the first, the young scientists who crowded to its ranks, attracted both by the confraternity of scientific work and by the good will of the first president, Bayer. Bayer was a man of experience and judgment rather than of originality; a clever man who had by his merit attained a good position, both from a pecuniary and a scientific point of view. This did not prevent him from remembering that in his youth he had suf¬ fered from the religious and philosophical intolerance of the Bestora- tion, which had barred him from a teaching career, and he took pleasure in protecting young scientists and in aiding them by his influence, which was great, and which was to become much greater by reason of the repute that attached to him because of professional medical services rendered to prominent and powerful people. Claude Bernard, Charles Bobin, and others also, among whom I have the honor to count myself, have received from Bayer assistance in their careers which they have never forgotten.