MEMOIR 



MAGENDIE. 



BY M. FLOURENS, PERPETUAL SECRETARY OF THE FRENCH ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



TRANSLATED FOK THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION BY C; A. ALEXANDER, 



" When one has otherwise a great deal of merit," says Fonteuelle, " a general 

 conformity with other men is an added merit." In the truth or value of this 

 maxim the eminent academician of whom I am ahout to speak was so far from 

 acquiescing that, in speculation as well as practice, he was generally prone to 

 assert a perhaps undue independence of the opinions and contempt for the 

 observances of others. 



Of a spirit firm but sceptical, upright but aggressive, if his quick penetration 

 enabled him to discover truth, if he knew how to exhibit it with simplicity and 

 clearness, he was just as capable of putting forth a rough energy in combating 

 it whenever it did not come to him of its own accord. We might imagine him 

 armed with the lantern of Diogenes, and concentrating its light to see only the 

 results Avhich he himself obtained; I'esults, indeed, which elucidate one of the 

 most delicate points in the human organism, and will insure the duration of a 

 name for which he has earned honor and consideration. That name had been 

 transmitted to him by a surgeon, originally of Beam, who exercised his profes- 

 sion at Bordeaux when Fi an^ois Magendie was born, October 15, 1783. In the 

 case of this infant, the pious solicitude, the tender affection which nature reserves 

 for the first stage of life, were sadly abridged ; he was deprived, by an acute 

 malady, of his mother, almost before he could know the happiness of being loved 

 by one. 



To the pleasing unconcern and confidence of infancy succeeded a precocious 

 and rude apprenticeship. Transplanted, as early as 1792, to Paris, he heard 

 nothing spoken of but the superlative work of Social Regeneration. His father, 

 a man of upright purpose, but incapable of allowing a folly to pass without 

 taking his share in it, conceived that, in order to endow his son with a civic en- 

 ergy corresponding to the elevation of his own principles, it was necessary to 

 educate him according to the precepts delivered by Jean Jacques. The new 

 Emilius, left to his own devices, wandered at will, with a liberty which strongly 

 resembled absolute abandonment. In order to preserve him from instructions 

 which might warp his judgment, he was left, on a principle of education, in com- 

 plete ignorance. His only resource as regarded the world of intelligence was ob- 

 servation, which alone (so said his guide) could secure to him entire indej)cndcnr,e. 



Finding, perhaps with reason, less difficulty in reforming abuses than in com- 

 bating maladies, the enthusiastic patriot had abandoned a practice which annoyed 

 him for the more congenial pursuit of unproductive civic appointments. With 

 the practice went the comforts of the household ; but what imported such a sac- 

 rifice as this? The exaggeration of patriotism and the reality of discomfort 

 proceeded to such lengths that he would have constrained his pupil, while seeking 

 to persuade him that this would be a further step towards independence, to make 



