INTRODUCTION n 



Paris. The broad area of the Jardin des Plantes, extend- 

 ing to the Seine, is bounded by the Rue Cuvier, the 

 Rue de Buffon (named for the first director of the 

 Garden), and the Rue Geoffroy St.-Hilaire. The vast 

 menagerie, gardens, and exhibits, including the herbaria 

 of Lamarck and Alexander von Humboldt and Cuvier's 

 celebrated collection of comparative anatomy, together 

 with the statues of many eminent men of science, 

 are not the only attractions of this home of the natu- 

 ralist. Here in a small laboratory, where their original 

 instruments may still be seen, four generations of the 

 family of Becquerel have carried on their classic inves- 

 tigations. Most significant of these is the discovery 

 by Henri Becquerel, in 1896, of the invisible radia- 

 tions of uranium, the starting point of research in radio- 

 activity. 



Were we to attempt to mention here even a tithe of the 

 laboratories, the schools, the great names, or the funda- 

 mental contributions to knowledge, which press for 

 recognition in all points of the Latin Quarter, these intro- 

 ductory pages would be multiplied beyond the reader's 

 patience. But as we pass from the Jardin des Plantes 

 through the Rue de Jussieu or the Rue Linne toward 

 the core of France's scholastic heart, our gaze is often 

 diverted. Across the Place Monge rises the Ecole Poly- 

 technique, flanked by the Rue Descartes and the Rue 

 Laplace. Farther on we reach the College de France and 

 the great pile of the Sorbonne. The statue of Claude 

 Bernard before the College must appeal to every scholar; 

 for his "Introduction a 1'etude de la medecine experimen- 

 tale," unfortunately veiled from workers in other fields 

 by its medical title, is one of the classics of science. 

 Here, in the crystalline clearness of perfect French, 

 devoid, in large part, of professional details, the general 

 principles of scientific research are superbly presented. 



