WORK OF HENRI BECQUEREL — BROCA. Y85 



produced a prism of sodium vapor by means of a small platinum 

 trough held over a yellow sodium Bunsen flame. He received the 

 spectrum of white light formed by this upon the slit of his grating 

 spectroscope and the hyperbolic form of the D lines indicated the 

 phenomenon of the anomalous dispersion. 



We will close this short notice of Becquerel with recalling that both 

 he and M. Curie were the first to suffer the painful effects of radium 

 upon the human body. Becquerel, by carrying in his armpit for 

 several hours a preparation of radium, contracted an ulceration in 

 his side which was very long in healing, and at another time he 

 received a noticeable pigmentation. With Curie he published his 

 observations at about the same time that Curie had suffered the effects 

 upon himself. These two great men were thus victims of the dis- 

 covery which led them both to glory, and perhaps the weakness 

 caused by their injuries was partly to blame for their premature ends. 



CONCLUSION. 



And now that I have so hastily reviewed these great accomplish- 

 ments, may I be permitted, as a friend of Becquerel and of France, 

 to express a heart-felt regret. Since Henri Becquerel built his work 

 with the poorest of scant material, the regret which I wish to express 

 is that so great a man had not at his hand the credit, the equipment, 

 and assistants found in so many foreign laboratories, which would 

 have more often allowed Becquerel to arrive ahead of others at the 

 goal of the fertile paths which he disclosed. 



