MEMOIR OF MAGENDIE 101 



The sensibility of the anterior root, of the motive root, pertains not to that 

 root, is not its own, is in fact but a derivative from the posterior root. This 

 derived or reversionary sensibility, which M. Magendie afterward denominated 

 recurrent sensibility, constitutes his discovery. And by this discovery, so deli- 

 cate and so difficult to achieve, he has restored to the principle of exc/usiveness 

 oj" action all its purity, for he has shown that, considered apart and in itself, the 

 anterior root is solely motive, as the posterior root is solely sensitive. As long 

 as M. Magendie lived these striking results Avcre contested ; nay, they are still 

 contested, but they are not the less incontestable. The recognition which co- 

 temporaries evado, is compensated by the admiration of posterity. 



M. Magendie was admitted to the Institute in 1821. Having had sufficient 

 address to secure his acceptance without dissembling his original humor, without 

 subjecting his ineradicable spirit of sarcasm to constraint, he was quite sure to 

 discard neither the one nor the other when he had attained his object. His 

 colleagues — the practitioners — had admitted him into their Academy from its 

 foundation, inasmuch as till then he had shown himself a sufficiently respectful 

 disciple of Hippocrates, although he believed in nothing, and in medicine less 

 than anything else. With a future conspiring to that end, convictions might 

 have reached him ; but a future like his, embellished by the sympathies Avhich 

 his scientific success assured him, could but conduct this intractable associate to 

 open revolt. 



In our own ranks he fulfilled conscientiously the duties imposed on him ; in 

 the labor of the committees he showed himself as active as he was judicious and 

 clear-sighted ; several reports of his were real studies. But he held in reserve, 

 at the service of certain of his privileges, those abrupt sallies whose suddenness 

 disconcerted prevision and set at naught all academic tradition. He never 

 insinuated that an opinion was erroneous or a fact misstated ; he plainly said 

 so. When a professional colleague — a physician — aspired to the Institute, his 

 suffrage was, of course, to be solicited ; but unless the impulses of affection 

 tended that way, he defended the position as one who did not believe in the 

 necessity of sharing it, and opposed to the foibles of the candidate a frankness 

 which left nothing to be guessed at. When substantial titles to success ap- 

 pealed to his probity, he would content himself with saying, as he turned away : 

 " Well, well ! you shall have my voice, but not my hand." 



A still more serious danger beset our academician : having dedicated himself 

 witliout reserve to physiology, he had arrogated that department of science to 

 himself as a domain which belonged to him in his own right. No point of it 

 could be touched upon without arousing his jealousy : either he had treated of 

 it, or he held it mentally in reserve with a view to inquiring what new aspect 

 could be given to it by experiment. In this state of things an aspirant who 

 stepped from the ranks became an enemy. Transported beyond all self-posses- 

 sion, M. Magendie would on such occasions reappear before us as the man who had 

 been reared in a complete exercise of the privileges of democracy, until reflection 

 and the intrinsic probity of his character admonished him how much, by such 

 injustice, he had descended below his proper level. 



Sarcastic, self-confident, and intellectual, there was here more than enough to 

 insure a good position in the world. Accordingly a select body of patients 

 awaited him without his seeking; but it was necessary that these patients should 

 renounce the comfort of being consoled for imaginary complaints ; that, con- 

 formed to his humor, they should accept plain trutJis, and submit to reprimands 

 and caprices. In spite of all, as Sganarelle expresses it, " they were so be- 

 witched with an idea of the man's skill," that, on the noise of the reputation 

 which they created for him, he was sometimes approached by those unhesitating 

 advocates of medical infallibility who venerate the yoke and would think all was 

 lost if their faith did not increase in proportion to the obscurity of the doctrine. 

 In laying before such persons the scanty inventory of his own creed, M. Ma- 



