LIFE AND WRITINGS OF BECLARD. 9 



a friendship. Let us therefore consider Beclard, as an anato- 

 mist, as a surgeon, as a professor, and as a private man. 



Anatomy had been the first object of the studies of Beclard. 

 His retentive memory enabled him to recollect most faithfully 

 the minutest descriptions ; his skill enabled him to perform 

 the most difficult dissections; and his great judgment placed 

 him far above a great number of pupils, whose whole ability 

 consists in discovering a muscle, or in following up the mi- 

 nute ramifications of an artery. Endowed with the three- 

 fold gift of dissecting well, of seeing well, and of remember- 

 ing exactly the relations and disposition of parts, he had 

 in himself, all the requisite qualifications to make a good ana- 

 tomist. When he arrived in Paris, anatomy and physiology, 

 already greatly improved by the researches and labours of 

 Haller, Bordeu, and Bichat, beautifully adorned with all the 

 brilliancy of their genius, powerfully enticed a great many 

 students, both by the attraction of the new discoveries, and 

 with the hope of the many useful applications they would be 

 able to make of them, in the practice of medicine and surgery; 

 consequently, this science was cultivated with an indefatigable 

 ardor, which was kept up and increased by the example and 

 encouragement of such men as Portal, Chaussier, and Dum6- 

 ril. At this time Pinel had already established important dis- 

 tinctions in the curative art founded on Anatomy ; and the 

 school, of which he was the leader, followed with enthusiasm 

 the impulse given by this philosophical physician. It was at 

 this time also, that the indispensable and inseparable know- 

 ledge of the organization, and that of maladies were intimately 

 united; and in order to render it still more necessary, while 

 Messrs. Richerand and Dupuytren were instructing the me- 

 dical profession with the healthy action of our organs, Messrs. 

 Bayle and Laennec were pointing out the different modes of 

 alterations they were susceptible of experiencing. 



It was very natural that Beclard should eagerly embrace 

 the prevailing opinions of his age, the more so because he 

 was capable of foreseeing all the good that the science might 

 derive from it. He never confined himself therefore to the 

 dry and sterile study of descriptive anatomy; he always con- 



