v\v\. iu:ucA. 137 



humur. I may be allowed to iiuotc one iucident which he 

 loved to recount. 



While traveling' in JSpain he came to .Seville and, desiring 

 to be shaved, sent for the nearest barber. Fij;aro ap{)eared 

 and, knowing that his customer was a famous surgeon, re- 

 fused to receive any recompense. "Sir," said he, with a 

 lofty air, " that is never allowed between professional breth- 

 ren!" The class of barber-surgeons exists to-day, in Sj)ain, 

 as it did when Cervantes wrote. 



The crowning {)ublic honor of IJroca's life remains to be 

 told. In 1879, the Senate nominated him as permanent 

 Senator, representing Science. lie was proposetl, of course, 

 by the left. The right, or monarchical, side, made tierce op- 

 position. He was an unyielding Republican, the founder 

 of the Antliroi)ological Institute, which meant free-think- 

 ing and athei.sm. They searched his writings for doctrines 

 to convict him and, with great joy, published this quotation, 

 •' I would rather be an ai)e brought to perfection than a de- 

 generate Adam." But this proved to have been a saying 

 of Claparede's and not of Broca's. A sentence was taken 

 from his Programme of Anthropology, "There is no faith, 

 however respectable, no interest, however legitimate, which 

 must not accommodate itself to the ])rogre.<s of human 

 knowledge and bend before truth, if the truth be demon- 

 strated." Even this scarcely orthodox doctrine, it .seemed, 

 was qualified by the preceding sentence which .said that 

 "science must keep aloof from anything not within its 

 province." 



Broca, with characteristic independence, took no part, 

 whatever, in the proceedings, but he was elected. On the 

 10th February, 1880, a banquet was given him by some of 

 his most attached friends, members of the Faculty of Medi- 

 cine, of the Academy of Medicine, of the Society of Anthro- 

 pology, of the Senate, of the Chamber of Deputies, &c., in 

 commemoration of the high honor bestowed upon him. 

 It was the grandest banquet ever given to a scientific man. 

 The long tabh' was tilled with those who had shared Ids 

 struggles and labors at dilfereiit \)Avi< of lii>^ career from the 



