576 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



sisted despite the obstacles in his way. In 1847, he was appointed a 

 deputy at the College de France and a career seemed assured. He now 

 could work in an official laboratory. He said at the beginning of his 

 lectures : 



Scientific medicine, gentlemen, which it ought to be my duty to teach here, 

 does not exist. 



Four years later, he was much disappointed in his career and thought 

 of giving up scientific work and going into private practise. Unhappy 

 domestic relations made matters worse, for his wife had no sympathy 

 for his scientific endeavors. He was, however, beginning to be recog- 

 nized as a coming man in science and was given the newly created chair 

 of general physiology in the University of Paris at the Sorbonne. This 

 was the first honorable position for him to occupy and his devotion to 

 science was now assured. In the same year, he was elected to the Acad- 

 emy of Medicine and Surgery. In 1855, Magendie died and Bernard 

 took his place as professor at the College de France. 



The lectures were not specified at the college, so he usually chose 

 some topic on which he was working and developed it, from lecture to 

 lecture, illustrating with old and new experiments. He used his lec- 

 tures to make known new facts and new or corrected and extended 

 views. The reports which were made to the Academie des Sciences and 

 the Societe de Biologie were very brief and incomplete. Only in his 

 published " Lecons " is a full account given of his experiments and re- 

 sults, many of which are found there alone. They were reported by one 

 or another of Bernard's students, revised by him and published. These 

 are his greatest written contributions. The series began with "Lecons 

 de Physiologie experimentale," published in 1855, dealing with the 

 physiology of sugar and the glycogenic function of the liver. He pub- 

 lished seventeen volumes in all. 



In the winter of 1862-63, he was bothered with an abdominal 

 trouble, probably appendicitis, from which he did not recover for five or 

 six years. Part of the time he spent at his old home at St. Julien tend- 

 ing his gardens and living out of doors. Here he had an opportunity to 

 broaden and generalize his ideas and write an " Introduction to the 

 Study of Experimental Medicine." In his later years, his thinking 

 became more general. He always tried to show the true spirit of 

 physiological inquiry and to realize the general aspects of the whole 

 field. This is well shown in his lectures on the phenomena of life com- 

 mon to plants and animals. 



In 1864, he visited court and greatly interested Emperor Louis Na- 

 poleon, who entered into a lively discussion with him which lasted for 

 two hours, and was so well pleased that he ordered his minister of public 

 instruction to see that he had whatever he wanted. Bernard obtained 



