6 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF BECLARD. 



veloped the opinion of some authors who think there is in 

 reality no regeneration of bone. He also made public his re- 

 flections on the formation of the callus; he demonstrated to- 

 gether with Bonn and Bichat that the ossification of the perios- 

 teum was only momentary, and served as a sheath to the two 

 fractured extremities during the time they are cemented with 

 phosphate of lime. It had been supposed for a long time, that 

 the curvature of the aorta produced the lateral curvature of the 

 dorsal region of the vertebral column. Bichat had already 

 shaken the general belief of this supposition, by supposing that 

 it might be caused by the often repeated contractions of the 

 muscles of the right arm; this however was only a supposition, 

 but Beclard demonstrated it to be a positive fact by numerous 

 researches upon this subject. We must not omit to mention, 

 the physiological experiments he performed in order to prove 

 that the foetus has respiratory movements while in the uterus, 

 by which it introduces the waters of the amnion into the bron- 

 chiae. He was, however, unable to demonstrate that this liquid 

 has a chemical action on the blood which enters the lungs. It 

 was also at this time that he made, with the assistance of Le 

 Gallois, a series of curious experiments calculated to determine 

 the action of the oesophagus in vomiting. 



In 1813, B6clard defended before the faculty of Paris his 

 thesis for the degree of Doctor of Medicine; it contains seve- 

 ral propositions, which treat: 1st, of the distinction to be esta- 

 blished between the lamellated and adipose tissues; 2d, of the 

 projection and depression of bones, which he conceives to be 

 induced by the primitive formation of the cellular web of the 

 bone, and not to the traction of the tendinous attachment of the 

 muscles. Some of his labours already cited, are again pre- 

 sented in this Thesis, which concludes with a learned inter- 

 pretation and with practical observations on the method of per- 

 forming the lateral operation proposed by Celsus. His talents 

 as a surgeon had been already justly appreciated; and in 1814, 

 at the time of the first invasion of France by the allies, he was 

 appointed by government to give his professional aid to the 

 wounded soldiers brought to the ambulance, established at the 

 Hospital Saint-Louis. His Memoir on Acephalus appeared in 



