CLAUDE BERNARD 569 



physiology. Anatomy, at this time, was well advanced and scientifically 

 presented but physiology consisted of a mass of uncorrelated and in- 

 exact data. 



His father died during this period, having lost most of his fortune 

 before his death, and left Claude to depend on his own resources. He 

 lived frugally and payed his fees with money earned by giving lessons. 

 He was retiring, thoughtful, awkward in manner and impressed neither 

 his fellow students nor his professors as being brilliant or liable to a 

 great career. Only in the dissecting room did he attract attention by 

 his careful and beautiful dissections. 



In 1839, after serving as "externe" at the hospitals, he was made 

 " interne " and appointed to work under Magendie, who was one of the 

 physicians at the Hotel Dieu and professor of medicine at the College 

 de France. The professor was allotted a small, dark room at the col- 

 lege for conducting research and was allowed a " preparateur " to assist 

 in research and in experiments conducted to illustrate the lectures. He 

 soon noticed Bernard's skill in dissection and appointed him his "pre- 

 parateur." With this appointment, Bernard's career as experimental 

 physiologist began. A glance at the state of physiology at this time will 

 show the great odds against which he was about to work. 



The spirit of present-day research was only beginning to be allowed 

 full play. Harvey, early in the seventeenth century, opened the way 

 for the application of experimental methods to physiological inquiry by 

 his observations leading to the discovery of the circulation of the blood ; 

 but the vitalistic theory had impeded, at every step, the attempts to 

 study living organisms. Slowly, this theory was losing ground and 

 physico-chemical explanations substituted. 



The spirit of progress was most apparent in Germany. Liebig had 

 recently opened at Giessen the first public laboratory for chemical 

 research. Wohler had made urea from ammonium cyanate, thus 

 destroying the old vitalistic argument that life was necessary to form 

 organic from inorganic substances. Johannes Miiller was the foremost 

 physiologist. He was a vitalist, but only in a modified degree much 

 more acceptable than Haller and his pupils. He believed in the neces- 

 sity of recognizing a vital force, but maintained it was not independent 

 of certain conditions. He did not depreciate the value of the experi- 

 mental method in discovering physiological truths, as is shown by his 

 own work and that of his pupils, among whom Ludwig, DuBois Ray- 

 mond and Helmholtz, soon to be the foremost physiologists in Germany, 

 were just beginning their careers. 



In England, Hall, Eeid, Sharpey and Bowman were advancing the 

 science by experimental methods. 



France had looked too much to her own scientists for the words of 

 progress and was far behind her neighbors. Cuvier and Bichat were 



vol. lxxxiv. — 39. 



