THE WORK OF HENRI BECQUEREL." 



(With 1 plate.) 



By Andre Broca. 



INTRODUCTION. 



It is no small nor easy task to retrace the life of Henri Becquerel, 

 unveiling his inner life and showing how in a life consecrated to 

 daily labor, moment by moment, he accumulated the great mass of 

 scientific material which, in his thirtieth year, opened to him the doors 

 of the Academic des Sciences, and how finally, through the logical 

 development of his train of thought, he reached the discovery which 

 has immortalized his name. 



It was an instructive spectacle to see Becquerel in his laboratory 

 arranging his apparatus with consummate skill, often constructing it 

 from odd pieces of card or of copper wire, which seemed alive under 

 his fingers, and with which he made the discoveries Avhich form his 

 memoirs. Foreign scientists who came in throngs to see each new 

 experiment could scarcely believe a laboratory so barren could yield 

 so abundant a harvest. They were astonished and cliarmed at their 

 reception, so simple and cordial, where they awaited the formal dig- 

 nit}^ of a man so eminent. Tlie laboratory seemed his normal place. 

 Experimental research, in the accomplishment of which he braved 

 every difficulty, seemed to be in him a vertiable physiological func- 

 tion. 



Becquerel made physics from all that fell under his hands. He 

 was raised for physics and by a physicist. The most precious memo- 

 ries, and with which he often entertained his friends, were of his 

 father and grandfather, whose discourse and example had helped to 

 shape his mind. In his youth the great reward for his vacation days 

 was to enter the laboratory of his father and see the old or new 

 experiments, to perform those within his ability, fashioning the ap- 

 paratus with his own hands. One of his most vivid recollections was 

 seeing his father come in one noon from his laboratory to announce 



"■ Translated, by permission, from Revue generale des Sciences pures et 

 appliquees. Paris, 19tti year, No. 20, October 30, 1908. 



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