262 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



1841, and passed successfully through the several competitive examina- 

 tions, till he became Anatomy Assistant of the Faculty in 1846, Pro- 

 sector of the Faculty in 1848, and Doctor of Medicine in 1849 ; and 

 while waiting the aggregate competition, which would not take place 

 for several years, he gave lectures on surgery and operative medicine 

 at the Practical School. Numerous works already gave promise of 

 what the future had in store for him. The bulletins of the Anatomi- 

 cal Society contain several papers which are still in repute on various 

 difficult subjects of pathology. " There is hardly one of these sub- 

 jects," says his biographer, Dr. Pozzi, " in which he did not at the first 

 stroke make a discovery great or small ; there is not one, at any rate, 

 in which he has not left the mark of his originality." At the aggre- 

 gate competition, which he had been awaiting, Broca displayed an 

 amount of knowledge and an erudition with which the judges were 

 strongly impressed. His thesis was a finished work on one of the 

 most difficult subjects in surgery. He was named first in promotion. 

 At the same time he received, at the competition of the Central Bu- 

 reau, the title of Surgeon of the Hospitals. He formed many and 

 solid friendships, and exercised, through the superiority of his mind 

 and his integrity, a real intellectual and moral authority. 



Till 1859, Broca's labors Avere exclusively anatomical and surgical. 

 His treatises on " Aneurisms and their Treatment " and on " Tumors " 

 have become celebrated. About two hundred studies on the most 

 various subjects, among which may be mentioned especially his re- 

 searches on articular cartilages and their pathology, belong to this 

 period. 



In the preface to his work on aneurisms, Broca makes an exposition 

 of the principles by which he was guided, which Dr. Pozzi regards as 

 worthy of being made the confession of faith of a scientific writer. 

 " I have desired," he says, " to submit received doctrines and opinions 

 to an independent criticism, knowing well that real science is still 

 hardly in its dawn, and that the most undisputed assertions are fre- 

 quently the most assailable ; I have aimed to set classic descriptions 

 in the face of positive observations, appealing to the experience of 

 surgeons of all countries, profiting by ancient and modern facts, check- 

 ing one with another, despising none, and seeking before everything 

 the reality, although authority may suffer for it. And I have made 

 it my duty to go back to the origin of our knowledge, to follow ideas 

 and discoveries from their birth to their complete development, and 

 to consecrate the rights often slighted of the true inventors. This alii- 

 ance of criticism and observation, of clinics and history, is destined 

 gradually to regenerate surgery by delivering it at the same time 

 from tradition and empiricism, from the spirit of routine and the 

 spirit of system, from the sterile erudition of those who look only at 

 tlif past, and the convenient ignorance of those who are occupied only 

 with the present." 



