136 SATURDAY LECTUllES. 



been better for his fame if he had concentrated his energies 

 upon fewer subjects ? In some persons, production is a slow 

 process, accompanied with extreme tension of the brain ; 

 the thought dwells a long time in the mind before it assumes 

 the form in which it is to appear; such persons bring forth 

 in sorrow and in pain. This was not Broca's ease. To 

 express his thoughts with extreme rapidity, whether by 

 speech or pen, was, to him, the most facile of functions. It 

 seemed play rather than work. And yet, Trelat, a critical 

 Judge, said of him, " Broca never wrote anything that came 

 down to mediocrity." His mind was essentially many-sided, 

 of restless activity and well sustained by the admirable 

 physical organization which he possessed. His intense love 

 of truth and the ardor of his convictions, at times, led him 

 to too great vehemence of expression. He was impatient 

 with those who did not see the truth as he saw it, or did not 

 see it as rapidly as he did. His work in anatomy, physiol- 

 ogy, and surgery stands, to this day, mostly unquestioned. 

 His qualifications for anthropology are forcibly stated by 

 one of his pupils. Professor Ball, who says : " Anthropology 

 is a compound of so many other sciences that the interven- 

 tion of a grasping and encyclopsedic mind like Broca's is 

 almost invaluable to form the connecting link between so 

 many different branches of human knowledge. An excel- 

 lent mathematician, a first-rate anatomist, a good Greek 

 scholar, Broca combined in himself that diversified knowl- 

 edge which the subject requires, with the synthetical ten- 

 dencies which condense these disseminated forces, and make 

 them converge upon a single point." 



In person, Broca was of the middle height arid strongly 

 built. His broad forehead and lustrous brown eyes gave a 

 very noble expression to his face. In private life, his re- 

 lations were in every way admirable. Benevolent and 

 generous, he was adored by liis family, and those who were 

 once his friends were his friends for life, — he " grappled tliem 

 to his soul with hooks of steel." He was a delightful com- 

 panion in his social hours. He had traveled much, and 

 would relate his adventures and observations with great 



